E Lincoln 

457 
.7 

L5^ 

The ^^Makings" of 
The Lincoln Association 

of Jersey City 

Br ViUiaai B. Richardson 

s 




Book n ^ 

I^1<KSI>NTI-:S) I 



Vca.-YvCJL* 




Abraham Lincoln anil "Thatl." A popular picture in certain Jersey City homes in Civil War times. 



The ^^Makings'' of 
The Lincoln Association 

of Jersey City 



A Souvenir of the Dinner at the Carteret Club Commemo- 
rating the One Hundred and Tenth Anniversary 
of the Birth of Abraham Lincoln 



By William H. Richardson 



The Jersey City Printing Company 
1919 






7 



UNOOtNIANA 



Officers of the Lincoln Association 
of Jersey City, 1919 

President . . . Robert A. Alberts, 123 Jewett Ave., Jersey City 

1st Vice President . Wilbur E. Mallalieu, 38 Bentley Ave., Jersey City 

2nd Vice President . C. C. Wilson, Lincoln High School, Jersey City 

Treasurer . . . Otto H. Lohsen. 238a Academy St., Jersey City 

Historian . . . John H. Ward, 34 Kensington Ave., Jersey City 

Secretary . . . James W. Gopsill, 381 Fairmount Ave., Jersey City 

Executive Committee, 1919 

Judge John A. Blair, Union League Club, Jersey City 

Charles F. Case, The Fairmount, Jersey City 

Gen. Wm. C. Heppenheimer, 291 Montgomery St., Jersey City 

Hon. Marshall Van Winkle, 100 Glenwood Ave., Jersey City 

Col. George T. Vickers, 22 Duncan Ave., Jersey City 

George C. Warren, Jr., 94 Kensington Ave., Jersey City 

William H. Richardson, 250 Union St., Jersey City 

James B. Throckmorton, 51 Glenwood Ave., Jersey City 

Dr. W. F. Randolph, 67 Kensington Ave., Jersey City 

Clarence M. Owens, 1 5 Clifton Terrace, Weehawken 

George J. McEwan, Summit Ave. and De Mott St., West Hoboken 

Willis J. Tuers. 21 Park St., Jersey City 

Committee on Publication 

Hon. Marshall Van Winkle, John H. Ward, Col. George T. Vickers 



Gift 
m 14 1919 



The Activities of the Lincoln Association,1867-1919 



In the lines below. Is compiled a list of the functions celebrated 
by the Lincoln Association from the earliest records available, down to 
the present time. It is subject, of course, to verification. 



1867. Feb. 12. 



April 
May 



15. 



Sept. 5. 



868. 



Oct. 

Nov. 
Dec. 
Feb. 



7. 

24. 

6. 



Annual Dinners: 



1868. 
1869. 
1870. 
1871. 
1872. 
1873. 
1874. 
1875. 
1876. 
1877. 
1878. 
1879. 
1880. 
1881. 
1882. 
1883, 
1884. 
1885. 
1886. 
1887. 



Date 

Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 
Feb. 



12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
11. 
]2. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
12. 
11. 



Zschau's Union House. Foundation. David W. 

Weiss, Benjamin Russell, Earl P. Lane, Prof. 

Charles Knowles, Charles Baker, Dietrich Kuhn, 

Peter Kolb, Charles A. Zschau. 
Zschau's Union House. Memorial and patriotic 

observance. 
Zschau's Union House. Organization. President, 

David W. Weiss; Vice President, Benjamin 

Russell; Secretary, Wm. B. Dunning; treasurer. 

Earl P. Lane; steward, Charles A. Zschau. 
Zschau's Union House. Presentation of album 

to President Weiss. 
Zschau's Union House. Theme, the Emancipation 

Proclamation. 
Zschau's Union House. Social evening. 
Library Hall. Largely attended Ball. 
Zschau's Union House. Presentation of Watch 

to Secretary Dunning. 



Given at 

Taylor's Hotel. 
Cooper's Hall 

(no data) 
Zschau's Union House. 
Zschau's Union House. 
Zschau's Union House. 
Zschau's Union House. 
Zschau's Union House. 
Zschau's Union House. 
Philadelphia Hotel. 
Continental Hotel. 
Philadelphia Hotel. 



Taylor 
Taylor 
Taylor 
Taylor 
Taylor 
Taylor 
Taylor 
Taylor 



Hotel 

Hotel. 

Hotel. 

Hotel. 

Hotel. 

Hotel. 

Hotel. 

Hotel. 



President 

W. Weiss 
W. Weiss. 
W. Weiss. 
W. Weiss. 
W. Weiss. 
W. Weiss. 
W. Weiss. 
W. Weiss. 
W. Weiss. 
W. Weiss. 
W. Weiss. 
DavidA.Peloubet. 
DavidA.Peloubet. 
Gopsill. 
Gopsill. 
Gopsill. 
Gopsill. 
John W. Pangborn. 
John W. Pangborn. 
John W. Pangborn. 



Day 

Dav 

Dav 

Dav 

Dav 

Dav 

Dav 

Dav 

Dav 

Dav 

Dav 

Maj 

Maj 

James 

James 

James 

James 





Date 




Given at 




President 


1888. 


Feb. 


13. 


Taylor's Hotel. 




Hon. Gilbert Collins 


1889. 


Feb. 


12. 


Taylor's Hotel. 




Maj. Z. K. Pangborn. 


1890. 


Feb. 


13. 


Taylor's Hotel. 




Flavel McGee. 


1891. 


Feb. 


12. 


Taylor's Hotel. 




John A. Blair. 


1892. 


Feb. 


12. 


Taylor's Hotel. 




John A .Walker. 


1893. 


Feb. 


13. 


Hotel Washington. 




Charles F. Case. 


1894. 


Feb. 


12. 


Hotel Washington. 




Col. Asa W. Dickinson 


1895. 


Feb. 


12. 


Taylor's Hotel. 




John M. Jones. 


1896. 


Feb. 


12. 


Taylor's Hotel. 




Simeon H. Smith. 


1897. 


Feb. 


12. 


Taylor's Hotel. 




Henry M. Nevius. 


1898. 


Feb. 


12. 


Taylor's Hotel. 




Col. Chas. W. Fuller 


1899. 


Feb. 


13. 


Taylor's Hotel. 




Col. Sheffield Phelps. 


1900. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




Joseph A. Dear. 


1901. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




George F. Perkins. 


1902. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




E. B. Bacon. 


1903. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




A. J. Newbury. 


1904. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




Harry Louderbough 


1905. 


Feb. 


13. 


Jersey City Club. 




Edmund Wilson. 


1906. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




Charles W. Parker. 


1907. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




James S. Erwin. 


1908. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




Dr. Henry Spence. 


1909. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




Marshall Van Winkle. 


The 1909 function — the Centenary Dinner — was unusually bril- 


liant and memorab] 


e. 






1910. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




Dr. Ulamor Allen. 


1911. 


Feb. 


13. 


Jersey City Club. 




Dr. Henry Snyder. 


1912. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




David R. Daly. 


1913. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




Dr.GordonK. Dickinson 


1914. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




James B. Vredenburgh 


1915. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




Jus. Francis J. Swayze 


1916. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




Col. Austen Colgate. 


1917. 


Feb. 


12. 


Jersey City Club. 




Geo. C. Warren, Jr. 


1918. 


Feb. 


12. 


Carteret Club. 




Col. Geo. T. Vickers. 


1919. 


Feb. 


12. 


Carteret Club. 




Robert A. Alberts. 








Secretaries. 






Wm. 


B. Dunnmg. 


from 


1867 to 1877. 




John 


W. Herbert, Jr. 


from 


1878 to 1884. 




Geor 


gej. 


Medole. 


from 


1885 to 1892. 




Thomas Milburn Gopsill. 


from 


1893 to 1903. 




Robert B. 


Gray. 


from 


1904 to 1912. 




Robert A. 


Alberts. 


from 


1913 to 1918. 




James W. Gopsill. 


from 


1919 








Treasurers 








Earl P. L 


ane. 


from 


1867 to 1868. 




Marmadul* 


.e Tilden. 


from 


1885 to 1904. 




Otto 


H. Lohsen. 


from 


1905 



A Few Words From a Pleased Committee 



This little book owes its publication to two men. President Robert 
A. Alberts and Mr. William H. Richardson. The first suggestion that 
a little book showing the genesis of our Lincoln Association would be 
the best souvenir of our Victory Dinner came from Mr. Alberts; and 
his suggestion at once became a concrete plan when he stated that Mr. 
Richardson was the man to write the book. Our Committee on Pub- 
lication was appointed to supervise the work; but our labor has been 
very slight indeed. When we read the proof submitted by Mr. Richard- 
son, we found a well done and finished piece of work. 

As this little book is read by our members, we are sure they will 
appreciate Mr. Richardson's industry and good judgment in the selection 
and arrangement of his material. His flowing narrative will be especially 
interesting to our older members ; and our younger members will learn 
from the vivid pictures of local conditions in this little book much that 
they should know about the events of those older days when our country 
was at a great crisis comparable only with the great crisis that we have 
just passed. Mr. Richardson is entitled to the thanks of our Association 
for his well done labor of love; and it is our great pleasure to preface 
this little book with these few words of acknowledgment and to sincerely 
thank him in the name of the Lincoln Association. 

The Committee also gratefully acknowledges the courtesy of 
one of our members, Mr. E. F. Chilton, of the Standard Engraving 
Company, New York, who has taken personal interest in the production 
of the full page engravings with which this souvenir is embellished, 

MARSHALL VAN WINKLE, Chairman 
GEORGE T. VICKERS 
JOHN H. WARD 

Committee on Publication. 



The "Makings" of the Lincoln Association 



According to the literature of the Lincoln Association of Jersey 
City, we are contemplating this evening, the "fifty-fourth Annual Ban- 
quet" of this time-honored organization. One would think that in 
more than half a century of forensic endeavor, with all the wealth of 
mental culture that has been concentrated upon the life of Abraham 
Lincoln and the lessons to be drawn from it, 
there would hardly be a phase left that 
had a shade of novelty in it. However, 
it has seemed to me that a story of the 
times of Abraham Lincoln, and about the 
people of Jersey City who believed in him 
— as well as about some who did not — 
would be of interest, and might be help- 
ful in another great crisis in human history. 
For we do forget. So I have chosen for 
the title of the story "The 'Makings' of the 
Lincoln Association," in which I want to 
present as vivid a picture as possible of 
the conditions under which the Lincoln 
ideal was nurtured in Jersey City. 

Just where to start the story is very 
difficult to say. Jersey City was chartered 
February 22, 1838; her first mayor, and 
her first citizen for a long, long lifetime, 
was born in Connecticut, and was eminent 
in the work of the American Colonization 
Society. Dudley S. Gregory's acquaintance with the principles that 
Abraham Lincoln was going to die for, was more than theoretical that 
far back. The politics of the time were already effervescing with the 
oratory of the Anti-Slavery Societies. Henry D. Holt had started his 
/ersel) City Advertiser and Bergen Republican in 1 838, and was printing 
stories now and then about the iniquitous commerce in the blacks, and for 
years his voice and pen were active in the cause which came to a climax 
a little more than a score of years later. 

5 




Hon. Dudley S. Gregory 



It will be pertinent to refer to the decidedly forward program of 
the forty-six members of the Particular Baptist Church of Jersey City 
and Harsimus, who withdrew from that select institution in 1842, to 
found a new Baptist Church with this covenant: "A slave-holder, 
or one who traffics in human flesh, is not a fit member for a Gospel 
Church; it would be sinful for one to sit down and commune with him." 
Then there was a little company of Congregationalists who worshipped 
at the southeast corner of Grove Street and Railroad Avenue, on part of 
what is J. W. Greene's present building site, most all of them so far 
as we can give locality to family names, originatmg in New England, 
who were exponents of the ideas of Wm. Lloyd Garrison. So it may 
be readily seen that The Foundation Company which later merged 
into the Lincoln Association was here as long as Jersey City. 

Without filling in pages of testimony to support the argument, 
I may say briefly that the cult did not grow any less feeble in Jersey 
City than anywhere else. Coming rapidly down the years to the time 
of those famous debates with Douglas, we find in the Telegraph, the 
local democratic newspaper, the following singularly unprophetic intro- 
duction of Abraham Lincoln: "Lincoln, who should thereafter be 
known as the brainless Bob O'Link of the Prairies ^ f- 'f- has 
succeeded in making a Jay of himself and his chattering will be ap- 
preciated accordingly." Well, history somehow has vindicated the 
champion of human rights and liberties! 

Speaking of Douglas' reference to Lincoln's having started life 
in a grocery, the same local authority solemnly informs us that "in 
Illinois as in many other parts of the west, 'grocery' is synonymous with 
'groggery.' " Other issues of about the same era tell us that Wm. 
Lloyd Garrison was an "abolitionist and atheist" — how smoothly that 
alliterative allusion must have slid from the Telegraphic pen! Fred 
Douglass was always referred to as a "nigger;" a gentleman, afterward 
slightly renowned in American journalism, was commonly called the 
"arch-nigger of the Tribune." Here is a Uttle jingle published January 
19. 1857, to help the cause along: 

"Othello is the negro race. 

lago is their Greeley! 
And if the darkies follow him 

He'll bamboozle them ginteelley!" 

Perhaps the reason lago put it over was that the "darkies" couldn't 
or wouldn't read the Telegraph and be led to avert the bamboozlement. 
Prominent exponents of the New Thought in democracy — Wright, 
Phillips, Higginson, Foster, Tappan, Garrison, et al. — were editorially 

6 



consigned "to cells in the lunatic asylum where they should be locked 
until satan should come to escort them to Brimstonedom." 

Henry D. Holt's paper then was known as the Sentinel; he was 
its "black republican" editor and he was a man of whom we can well 
be proud when we recount the hot times in the old town of three score 
years ago; when the Telegraph was jammed with utterances of incon- 
ceivable rankness. "That eminent humbug, the learned blacksmith, one 
of the most impudent meddlers in the Union," gets his one day, also; 
Horace Greeley, William H. Seward and John Brown were burned in 
effigy by certain Princeton students in 1859, and the pleasantry was 
deliciously commented upon. On another occasion the editor labels and 
lambasts his political opposites, as "Abolitionists, Atheists, Deists, Infidels 
and other advocates of idiotic schemes of disunion, anarchy and treason." 

When John Brown's raid and its tragic consequences got into the 
Telegraph, it featured that side of the story that somebody or bodies in 
Jersey City must have wanted to read: the offer of South Carolinians who 
wanted John Brown hung with a home-grown cotton rope; the anxiety of 
Mrs. Mahala Doyle to bathe her hands in his blood, and her sending a 
halter woven by her slaves for his execution. A Unitarian church was 
then located at the southeast corner of Montgomery and Grove Streets ; its 
minister was Rev. O. B. Frothingham. He was quite as radical in his views 
as the Telegraph — only from another angle — and once Mr. Frothingham 
said some things in a public address which prompted the following 
comment in the newspaper: "Mr. Frothingham came to us from a 
witch-burning region, but we had hoped that the pure union atmosphere 
(!) of Jersey City might lead him to forsake the error of his ways. 
* * * The Black Republican Preacher wishes to free any and 
every nigger even at the expense of the church, the Constitution, the 
Union, and even the lives and property of every white man in the country 
who dares to differ with him in opinion. Thank God there is room 
in our State Lunatic Asylum for such crazy fanatics." The "Frothy- 
ham" church was set on fire about that time and the Unitarians had 
very excellent reasons for believing that it was of incendiary origin; 
the Telegraph sought, on the other hand, to prove a "copperhead" alibi, 
with the same success that Lady Macbeth did, for protesting too much. 

There was a "recognition" of the Bethesda Baptist Anti-Slavery 
and Free Mission Church on July H, 1858, and the Telegraph reports 
that "the sentiments preached there would be quite Appropriate in an 
assembly of Black Republicans, but out of place in a pulpit on the 
Lord's Day. It appears to have become the fashion of late with preachers 

7 



to close their bibles and devote their time to the temporal welfare of 
niggers and nigger lovers." 

Father J. Kelly, Pastor of St. Peter's, 82 Grand St., had an 
advertisement in the Telegraph of September 3, 1857, certifying to the 
fact that "Elizabeth Daniel had not been married to the mulatto John 
Bravvery and that the rumor against Thomas Doyle and his wife, and 
which unfortunately has exposed them to the peril of their lives is false." 

Henry Ward Beecher lectured in Metropolitan Hall, December 
15, 1858, for the benefit of the Firemen's Fund; the Telegraph charac- 
terized the lecture as "savoring somewhat of niggerism" — which is 
probably just what it did if Henry Ward Beecher's faculties were 
functioning properly in 1858. These are but a few more instances 
to prove the need of the coming Lincoln Association, at least! 

The 1860 Before the Lincoln campaign of 1 860, the Telegraph was suc- 

Campaign ceeded — and superseded in capacity for scurrility — by the American 
Standard, why so named one may well wonder if he should ever take 
occasion to peruse its files. In that campaign it supported John Bell 
of Tennessee for President, and Edward Everett of Massachusetts 
for Vice-President — with the tremendously important historical effect 
of contributing to the election of Abraham Lincoln. That result, how- 
ever, owed little of its importance to this State; the Standard un- 
graciously showed its feelings in a long editorial in which it lauded 
"New Jersey: faithful among the faithless, she alone of all the free 
states has been mindful of the advice of Washington and has arrayed 
herself against the geographical and sectional party his prescience fore- 
saw." Perhaps we may find a claim in that sentence that may reasonably 
connect us with the Father of our Country, too. Right underneath that 
same editorial it publishes a reprint from the Churchman of New York, 
reviewing and applauding the scriptural arguments for the institution of 
slavery. 

Passing over the months of the excessively vituperative campaign 
which resulted in the election of Lincoln, and contemplating his journey 
to Washington for inauguration, doubtless there are some present 
to-night who will recall his reception in Jersey City when he passed 
through here on February 21, 1861. One of the papers was unkind 
enough to recall the tenor of New Jersey's voting when commenting 
upon the stupendous crowds gathered to greet the President-elect. Mr. 
Lincoln had come over from New York on the new ferryboat Jackson 
under special command of Commodore Woolsey, superintendent of the 
ferry. Dodworth's Celebrated Cotillion Band, a famous musical aggre- 



gation of the day, was on board and discoursed appropriate music. 
When the boat was in the middle of the river Afdmn. Hardenbergh 
made a neat speech, which was reported in full, while Mr. Lincoln 
is said to have replied in "a few apt words," which were not printed 
in full. 

In the throng on the Jackson, Mr. Lincoln recognized and chat- 
ted with Hon. D. S. Gregory, who had been his colleague in Congress. 
A pleasing incident is recorded of his having stooped over to kiss 
"the infant daughter of the late T. L. Smith," and saying as he did 
so, "we cheerfully welcome the little lambs." I have often wondered 
who and where the infant daughter of the late T. L. Smith is now 
and whether she had infant daughters to whom she could tell the 
pretty story! 

When the Presidential party arrived at the station there was an _ 
ovation. Judge William L. Dayton welcomed Mr. Lincoln to New Lincoln s 
Jersey with a very able address, and to that Mr. Lincoln replied, J^^^^) i-.ity 
together with some remarks that did not get into print: "Ladies and 
Gentlemen of the State of New Jersey: I shall only very briefly thank 
you for the very warm and kind reception you have given me, and 
I shall try to make myself heard if possible. Not that I thank you 
personally for the reception, but only as the temporary representative of 
a great nation. I have been met in the same way all through my journey, 
and as I had often to do in other places, I am sure you will not feel 
dissatisfied with me for merely greeting you with a sincere farewell for 
the present. You have met me through your own kind and valued 
friend Judge Dayton, a man who is an honor to any State in this great 
Union, and who has said enough to include my own response if I had 
not uttered a word. Most heartily do I endorse every sentiment he 
has expressed; and I sincerely trust you will find me everything which 
the present interest of the country demands." 

It was rather a modest speech for the man who had crossed swords 
with the giant Douglas! As he closed his brief acknowledgment, 
Mr. Lincoln's attention was directed to the balconies of the station, 
crowded with elegantly dressed ladies, "an unbroken array of the youth, 
beauty and intelligence of Jersey City." So he expressed his admiration 
of the spectacle and put a graceful period to his talk by a playful 
allusion to a familiar political topic of the day, avowing his readiness 
to recommend compromises with women ; but with men — never ! 

Presently the party was ushered into the special train for the 
South. The locomotive IVilliam Pennington drew it, ornate with 

9 



flags and bunting ; Abraham Condit was the engineer : a son of Super- 
intendent Woodruff was the honorary stoker. The car of honor was 
a new one but recently finished in the New Jersey Railroad car shops, 
and beautifully furnished and upholstered by Earle & Co. of this city. 
A notable feature was its luxurious sofas. Before reaching Washington 
the news of a threatened attempt upon Mr. Lincoln's life caused a 
diversion in his journey by a more circuitous route, and that furnished 
no end of ribaldry in unfriendly newspapers. The Standard gloated 
for years over the Scotch cap and cloak in which he was alleged to 
have been disguised from Harrisburg to Washington. 

When Lincoln was inaugurated the Standard professed itself bored 
at being compelled to perform a professional duty in publishing a docu- 
ment which "as a literary production was unworthy many a schoolboy, 
while as an interesting effort it has nothing to rescue it from mediocrity." 
Such was the monumental pronouncement, rendered after elaborate analy- 
sis and discussion, upon the great inaugural address, which in most men's 
minds to-day ranks as the most profound presentation of the momentous 
issues ever advanced. What a sight for the ages! Lincoln standing 
there before the Capitol, surrounded by enemies, unafraid, and yet 
pleading with all the fervor of his masterly logic that they should know 
what they were about to do. And after they had gone out from that 
presence, with the pleading climax of his peroration sounding in their 
ears, they chose to forget what he said about "the mystic chords of 
memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every 
living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land." 

In the lines written before this I have endeavored to develop the 
idea that there were in Jersey City certain groups of citizenship, rather 
diminutive, perhaps, that came into existence as the logical reaction 
against the wrongs that might be laid to differences of political opinion. 
History has shown us, however, how these wrongs struck at the heart 
of the Nation, and how, in the progress of events the proponents of these 
divergent views became arrayed on one side or the other until the vortex 
of the Civil War engulfed them. The idea of a war to settle these 
differences was then an unbelievable thing; early in 1861 the local paper 
commented complacently upon the "secession cockades" that certain 
gentlemen, names not given, wore in their hats upon Jersey City's 
streets : nobody prepared for war as the way to discourage their decorating 
themselves. But the moment came when dealing academically with 
slavery and secession was done away with forever. 

The President's proclamation declaring the Southern states in 
rebellion and calling for 75,000 militia from loyal states was published 

10 



here April 15, 1861. Several other interesting news items were pub- 
lished in the same issue of the paper. A coasting schooner had come 
up the river and anchored off the city, somewhere near the foot of 
Essex Street. A palmetto flag flew from her mast-head. Some soot- 
stained patriots from the Dummer glassworks saw the objectionable 
emblem and rowed out to the schooner. The clump, clump, of their 
iron nailed shoes across the deck awakened the captain, and he was 
given the choice of hauling down the ensign and breaking out Old 
Glory in its place, or having his boat sunk. He saved his ship. 

At the close of an enthusiastic Union meeting in the Hudson 
House, the crowd swept up the street and jeered and booed before 
the newspaper office, 23 and 25 Montgomery Street, and then went 
to the homes of its publishers for the same sort of a serenade, because 
the sheet had maligned the Government and the proprietors would not 
put up our flag. I know the names of two — Henry D. Holt and C. 
H. Dummer — who assisted in the festivities of the evening. 

On April 1 8th, the Massachusetts volunteers, 1 ,000 strong were 
entrained at lower Montgomery Street to the rhythm of martial music, 
the cheer of loyal songs, the flutter of countless flags; they passed on 

into history: the next day, the anniver- 
sary of Lexington, occured the tragedy 
at Baltimore. They were the first of 
many, many more thousands, to start on 
that Great Adventure, the magnitude of 
which none could dream and the end of 
which none could foresee. And 55 
years afterward on June 21, 1916, 
those of our own circle of friend- 
ships, the old Fourth and the Signal 
Corps marched no less proudly down 
the same street, were embarked at 
almost the same spot, and were swept 
away into the mist that cleared away 
presently and revealed our part in the 
greatest adventure in all human history. 

By a strange co-ordination of news incidents, the account of these 
soldier sons of Pilgrim fathers was printed immediately above a few 
line notice telling of the unanimous calling to the First Congregational 
Church of John Milton Holmes. Without reflecting upon other churches 
in the town, it may be said that the incident was of very great moment 




Rev. John Milton Holmes 




Lincoln Reading the Emancipation Proclamation to His Cabinet 
(The original of this picture hung in the Tabernacle for many years) 

to Jersey City. He preached a sermon the Sunday night after the 
Baltimore affair that stirred the town to its depths, and it was given 
the very unusual attention of being published in full in the Courier 
and Advertiser "at the request of hearers who were electrified and 
delighted by its noble sentiments and splendid delivery. " It is beautiful 
reading to-day, and the magnificent work done by this splendid soldier 
of the Cross in Jersey City in the few years of his intensive devotion 
should be known and acclaimed by every school child. 

With great emphasis, therefore, I beg to present the name of 
John Milton Holmes as one who helped prodigiously to make the 
Lincoln Association possible. We cannot read the newspapers, both 
kinds, if you please, without being gripped by the sublimity of his 
devotion to the Lincoln ideal ; and by the time that the Tabernacle, 
"with a flag pole for its steeple and the Union emblem for its weather 
vane," was dedicated, two years later, the people of Jersey City were 
pretty well accustomed to the brand of politics preached by its minister. 
He believed in Lincoln. "Every citizen who failed to uphold the honor 
of the flag was an abettor of treason and should suffer the penalty due 
to his crime;" that was an oft repeated declaration to the great audiences 
he attracted. So we have the two partisans. To one Lincoln meant a 
bloody war and a wicked waste of human life, and an interference 
with the inherent rights of the people ; to the other Lincoln meant an ideal 
of human freedom. Union in a great Nation that should be one and 
indivisible. Both believed utterly in their principles. It is hardly 
necessary to comment upon that branch of the Lincoln Association 

13 




W I.eelock H. ParmU 



that was always in session at the Tab- 
ernacle, and attended by loyal people 
from other congregations, including their 
"Yankee" preachers, for example, Rev. 
W. H. Parmly of the Baptist Church, 
the clergymen of the M. E. Church, and 
others. 

"The President's opinion that slavery 
is the cause of the war" was regarded 
by the Standard of December 3, 1862, 
"as a fundamental error," and he was 
solemnly adjured to make "well directed 
efforts to save our tottering nation." I 
have gone through the files of the local 
paper pretty thoroughly, for I should really 
like to discover what sort of well-directed 
efforts, what constructive thoughts it might 
have advanced, in the way of winning the 
war, if there was any such purpose bound 
up in its program of saving the nation. 
Henry Ward Beecher would not have to explain to any fairly well 
informed audience what his program was during the Civil War, yet he 
was arraigned in Jersey City as one who "professes to be a Christian and 
yet invokes God and Christ to carry on butchery for the sake of humanity. 
Impious fool!" Nor would Wendell Phillips have difficulty in convinc- 
ing any one of his war-time beliefs, yet he was pilloried here as the "arch- 
agitator who according to his own admission has been laboring twenty 
years to dissolve the Union." Neither will it harm the reputation 
of Dr. George B. Cheever, to quote an editorial opinion about him as 
the "reverend, fanatical, hypocritical, treason-breeding Cheever 
* * * who envenomed our atmosphere of loyalty by his foul breath, 
this sainted preacher of discord and the higher law, who prostituted 
the high purposes of an ambassador of the truth of Christ." 

Probably only a few of my gray-haired readers will recall the 
stirring scenes enacted in the Tabernacle, that historic building at the 
corner of York and Henderson Streets. I want to allude to one of 
them at this juncture, because it so completely illustrates the state 
of the public mind at a most critical period in the life of Lincoln. The 
annual meeting of the First Congregational Society was on the point 
of adjournment on March 26, 1 863, when Hon. D. S. Gregory arose 
to ask the approval of the society to action already taken by the Building 



Committee in granting permission to use the almost finished auditorium 
of the Tabernacle for the definite purpose of forming a Union League. 

The local papers indicate that the approval was voted, for the The Union 
following advertisement appeared for the next few days: "One People, League 
One Country, One Destiny. The loyal people of Jersey City without rounded 
distinction of Party are invited to attend a meeting to be held in the 
new Tabernacle, corner York and Henderson Streets, on Monday 
evening, March 30, 1863, at half past seven o'clock, for the purpose 
of expressing their devotion to the Constitution and the Union of the 
United States, and their firm determination to uphold the authority of 
the Government and enforce the laws. Addresses by Hon. James T. 
Brady, Hon. James Wadsworth, Wm. Allen Butler, Esqr., and E. 
M. Dickerson, Esqr. Seats reserved for ladies. A patriotic ode will 
be sung, accompanied by the organ." 

Well, the meeting was held, according to schedule. The only 
thing that stops me from printing in full the Standard's account of 
what it called "A Republican League Meeting" is the fear of the 
committee that will have to audit the printer's bill. It was rich, from 
one end to the other. Curiosity to see and hear James T. Brady, "the 
captured copperhead;" a copious display of rockets and other fireworks; 
the packing of the meeting with members of the M. E. Conference 
then in session in the city ; the presence of a gallery full of ladies "guarded 
at each door by one of their number of the 'strong minded persuasion.' " 
Whatever the reasons the great auditorium was jammed, at any rate. 

Alexander H. Wallis called the meeting to order, and nominated 
Hon. Dudley S. Gregory for chairman. Then Mr. Gregory led the 
way to the platform, followed by Ephraim Marsh, Esq., H. M. Trap- 
hagen, Peter Bentley, Robt. Gilchrist, E. M. Dickerson, Esq., of Pater- 
son, Revs. R. L. Dashiell (Trinity M. E.), John Milton Holmes 
and Wheelock H. Parmly. Wm. C. Traphagen was appointed Secre- 
tary. Rev. Mr. Dashiell opened the meeting with an eloquent prayer. 
Then Mr. Holmes was called upon to explain the object of the meeting 
— which he did by blandly reading a clipping from the A^eD^ York 
Express, in which the Unionists, Abolitionists, the Congregationalists, 
etc., were just shot to pieces with copperhead rhetoric. 

Mr. Holmes submitted for adoption by the meeting, a set of 
resolutions declaring for the manifestation of the highest patriotism 
at this time. He quoted Whitefield about there being no sect in 
Heaven, and so "we come together to-night to consecrate this house to 
the God of our fathers, standing on one platform to crush out rebellion. 

15 




Peter Bemlev 



As to the cry of peace, when the last rebel is driven into the Gulf of 
Mexico, then we can thank God for peace." Notwithstanding the 
Standard said no question was put, and no action was taken upon the 
resolutions, they were adopted. The Loyal League was formed, for the 
Standard published a number of ribald references to the organization 
later. 

The meeting must have been a most uproarious one. Mr. Dicker- 
son was interrupted in his speech when he quoted a letter from Charles- 
ton, S. C., dated some four months before the war, predicting a northern 
and a southern confederacy. The interrupter wanted the name of the 
writer and in the confusion of hisses and cheers, a cry was raised, "put 
him out!" And he did get put out. Further turmoil was caused by 
another "conscientious objector" when James T. Brady, afterward 
one of the most famous criminal lawyers in America, started to speak. 
William Harney got up, and in his big voice, demanded that that seces- 
sionist be removed before Mr. Brady began. But Mr. Harney froze the 
genial current of the obnoxious soul, and then Mr. Brady went through 
with that classical address of his, clear to the climax when he declared 
that "by the strength and power of the great Author of the universe 
the Union must and shall be preserved." 



Since the Civil War, we have at least learned to estimate at The Peak 
something like their true value the battle of Gettysburg and the surrender of the 
of Vicksburg. Of course this could not be computed at the time, but War 
on July 4, 1863, they certainly added a little more spirit to the civic 
celebration of Independence Day, which was officially appointed by 
Common Council for the Tabernacle. A National salute at sunrise 
of 35 guns by the Hudson County Artillery, a general house to house 
decoration with flags, and the ringing of church and fire-bells, marked 
the day outside; in the Tabernacle, the celebration started at 12.30 
with Mayor Romar presiding. Alderman Gafney, Rev. Dr. Parmly 
and Rev. John Milton Holmes participated in the exercises. Dudley 
S. Gregory, Jr., led the patriotic singing; A. S. Hatch read the Declara- 
tion of Independence and Rev. Sam. B. Bell of the Reformed Dutch 
Church made a spirited patriotic address. 

But the import of the tremendous news from Gettysburg and 
Vicksburg commenced to sink in in the next few days and so another 
town celebration was appointed for that. The rimes of July 6th, 7th 
and 8th fairly reeked with the news of victory, and it was decided 
to congregate in the Tabernacle for public thanksgiving for the turn 
in the fortunes of our armies. There was something said in print at 
the time, about the reasons why there had been no opportunity for such 
a celebration before; and that did not set well with the Standard. How- 
ever, Peter Bentley presided over the meeting appointed for July 8th, 
in gratitude for the "affluence of joyful tidings." Rev. John Milton 
Holmes, Rev. Sam B. Bell, Joseph Hoxie were among the speakers; 
the Standard says that Horace Greeley made "a few congratulatory 
remarks;" while the Neiv York World which was not what you might 
call friendly to H. G., said this of his eloquence: "The great 
blow which General Grant has struck against the rebellion at Vicksburg 
was celebrated last night by a still mightier 'blow' in Jersey City." 
The program of exercises, the Standard said, was forced down the 
people's throats! 

Out on the streets that Wednesday night, there was some time, 
too. Down in Washington Square they were firing a salute of 1 00 
guns ; the bells of the city were rung from 6 to 7 P. M. ; Colgate's 
soap works, Taylor's Hotel, Black's trunk factory, the ferry house, 
and many other business places were gorgeously illuminated ; Dodworth's 
Celebrated Cotillion Band played at the City Hall until 8.30, when 
it was time to go to the Tabernacle and contribute to the enthusiasm 
of that function. But to find out about it you must go to the Times, 
not the Standard. 



An Among the decorations in this room to-night is a tattered flag. 

Historic and it is a high privilege for us to contemplate it in connection with 
Flag the narrative we have just been discussing. When the story of Gettys- 

burg and Vicksburg came, Mr. Holmes thought the Tabernacle ought 
to have a flag as a proper adjunct to its celebration, so he started out 
with a subscription list and got these names upon it : Rev. John Milton 
Holmes, $5; P. L. Snyder, $5; A. S. Hatch, $5; Winslow Ames. 
$2; William Spaulding Taylor, $1 ; E. H. Adams, $1 ; Thomas H. 
Bouden, $1; S. C. M. Allen, $3; M. S. Douglass, $1; Thomas 
Potter. Jr., $5; D. S. Gregory. Jr., $5; William A. Durrie, $3; 
J. M. Goddard, $1; Henry D. Holt, $1; Philo H. Prindle, $1 ; 
A. M. Clerihew, $1 ; cash, 50 cents; William Harney, $1 ; Mr. 
Merriman, 50 cents; S. A. Frost, $1 ; Noyes P. Dennison, $1 ; Charles 
H. Johnson. $2; Mrs. C. H. Shaw, $1; Mrs. N. M. Shaw. $1 ; 
Mr. Cander. $1 ; Homer Brooks. $1 ; Peter H. Kline. $1 ; W. W. 
Ingersoll, $1 ; WilHam H. Duryea. $1 ; John B. Moffat, $1 ; George 
Kingsland, $1.50; Chauncey Holt, $1. Then there was another 
name on the list (which I know) marked "payment refused." The 
flag money amounted to $57.50. 

Most of these names have disappeared from Jersey City history — 
but the Lincoln Association may well honor them to-night, as we think 
upon that patriotic roster of splendid citizens who were loyal in darker 
days than these, and dwell upon what they endured in the times when 
union and abolition were not quite as "fashionable" doctrines as they 
became later on. The flag was not ready for the big civic night of 
July 8th. so it was not dedicated until the next night. After preliminary 
devotional exercises in the church, the congregation repaired to the street ; 
Mr. Holmes mounted an extemporized platform and gave a classical 
address on "The Flag." Then as every eye was fixed upon it, this very 
flag above us to-night, was slowly hoisted into place; a cannon boomed, 
and the audience broke into cheers for Meade, Grant and President 
Lincoln, and three times three for the Union. This banner was one of 
the most cherished relics of the Tabernacle and was always in evidence 
at the countless functions afterward held in that historic edifice. After 
the dispersion of the Tabernacle people the flag has been in the custody 
of the Free Public Library, whose courtesy in loaning it for this 
occasion is most gratefully acknowledged. 

Draft The synchronism of the "invasion of the north" and what is com- 

Riot monly known as the "draft riots" of July 1 3, 1 4 and 15, 1863, has 
Days been pretty well established, I believe. Terrible as they were, they were 

18 






'"'«„ 



^ 







^' 



The Subscribers to the Tabernacle Flag, 1863 




really intended v\s part ot a much more pretentious demonstration which 
the e\er,t> ot Gettysburg interfered with. In Jersey City, according 
to the Standard everything was quiet ; just a 
tew boys prowling around burning stables; 
the "nigger"" population was so terrified that 
they lett their homes and took refuge for days, 
old men and women and little babies, in 
Currie's woods, and the woods fringing the 
heights of the city: two companies of the 
74th New ^ ork stopped over in Jersey 
C ity for several days : a gun-boat and a cutter, 
armed with howitzers and with marines 
aboard, dropped anchor off Secor's ship- 
yard, where monitors were being built ; a mob 
surrounded the Tabernacle and threatened to 
burn it down if some fugitive blacks said to be secreted in the top of 
the building were not turned over to them (Chauncey Holt placed his 
axle-handle souvenir of the defense in the Free Public Library many 
3rears afterward) : Pastor Holmes was on the roof with a pile of bricks 
before him, promising the mob some droppings from the sanctuary if 
they did not disperse. But generally speaking, the town, according to 
the Standard, ""continues quiet, without any fear that the peace will 
be disturbed!" 

A certain gentleman who was a candidate for an importaait civic 
position a little less than two years later advertised his reasons for 
deserving the votes of his fellows, and incidentally illuminated the subject 
for us: ""The people will not readily forget one who has acted as 
their friend in so imp>ortant a matter as the draft, and who has faithfully 
striven, in season and out. early and late, to keep them with their 
families."" He wais elected on that platform in 1 863 ; people have dis- 
a^ipeared from social life in 1 9 1 8 for a great deal less than that ! 

It is difficult indeed to imaigine how such a pandering to the taste 
of a clientele, whether real or supposed, could be tolerated. With 
die growing enormity of the victorv* in the two great campeiigns in 
mind, aind the surprising mamfestation of ptower eigainst the lawlessness 
of the metrc^olitan mob as a new inspiration, the Standard' s psycholog>- 
takes a curious tack. On July 25, 1863, with a circus performance 
imminent, it prints the following pleasant notice: "The Two Clowns. 
— Two clowns. Dan Rice and Abe Lincoln receive for their services 
the same salar>\ $25,000 a year. AX^Tiile the latter furnishes nothing 



20 



but a few stale jokes, unintelligible speeches and useless proclamations, 
Dan gives the benefit of his name to a large establishment, the use of 
his beautiful horse, Excelsior, and his educated mules, etc." Whether 
that bit of editorial courtesy ever helped Dan, I do not know, but a 
press ticket to a circus looks like a high price to pay for it. 

When the time came, a few months later, to write up the story 
of the exercises incident to the dedication of the National Cemetery 
at Gettysburg, we do not have to imagine that there was no expression 
of any indication of immortality in the address which is now on the 
tongue of every schoolboy in the land. Edward Everett's oration, 
of course, was the thing "that was listened to with marked attention," 
and he said a great deal which it would hurt the Standard to print, 
so abstracts of it only were published. Lincoln wisely wrote ; he could 
not be condensed; and so, what it calls his "dedicatory speech" was 
printed in full. 

All through the campaign of 1 864, the Standard voiced the same 
bitter animosity. It grew frantic in July, 1 864, over the terms addressed 
"To whom it may concern" in that famous Niagara conference. The 
basis of a total abolition of slavery was preposterous, as Mr. Lincoln 
would discover when he scanned the election returns on November 8th. 
It published the names of two New Jersey newspapers whose editors. Kind 
it reported, had been arrested for publishing articles antagonistic to the ^ ords 
draft — Mr. Winton of the Bergen Countv Democrat at Hackensack, in 64 
and O. C. Cone of the Somerset Messenger. And then it reprinted the 
article attributed to the Bergen Countv Democrat: "Let the press speak 
out in opposition to this merciless conscription, which has no other end 
than to secure the election of Abraham Lincoln for another term of four 
years or for life. There's no pretext now that the administration are 
at all desirous of restoring the Union and the Constitution. Why then 
should the people be dragged from their homes at the beck of a tyrant 
and a usurper, to murder and destroy those with whom they should 
be at peace?" That was the way the bolsheviki of 55 years ago talked 
about the President ! 

When Lincoln was re-nominated the Standard condensed the story 
of the historic Baltimore convention into a few lines like this: 
"A. Lincoln, Esq., father of his country, vice Geo. Washington, de- 
ceased, has accepted the nomination. The acceptance was accompanied 
by the usual 'I am reminded of a story,' which is, of course, too stupid 
to bear repetition." All through the summer and fall of '64, its readers 
were regaled by diatribes of inconceivable depravity ; the President 

21 



and his cabinet were referred to as ""Abraham the fanatic and his 'Red 
Repubhcan" maniacs smeared all over with the blood of the innocent;" 
stories telling of outrages alleged to have been p>eri>etrated by negro 
soldiers, with the scenario usually laid in some stately old Southern 
home, \\nth the few remaining women as the ■victims, were dished up. 
They were not ver>" wholesome narratives, but they were recommended 
to Mr. Lincoln as sources of "new material for his obscene jokes." 
That splendidly self-sacrificing group of men known as the Christian 
Commission was sneered at in this wise: "WTiere their conversation is 
once upon God and eternit>- it is a thousand times on abolition and 
Abe Lincoln. ' John Milton Holmes was one of the *"C. C." men meant 
by the Standard. He had spent three months with Sherman's army, and 
was never well again, as the result of the privations he endured. 

Another series of articles was intended to show how the President 
had "attempted to make the public treasury pay a personal bill of 
$2,500." As the bill involved White House crocken.". and as Mr. 
Lincoln was not charged with any particular measure of success in 
the attempt, we may well wonder what the Standard would have done 
if he had actually gotten away with it! Here is a choice bit of verse, 
only one stanza of three, pnnted on October 21, 1 864, under the title, 
"Lincoln, the widow maker and Hells outrider:" 

"We are coming, flatboat t>-rant, in mourning goods and tears ; 

To hear your stories and your jokes, we trust no more for years ! 
^X e are coming, widow maker, from prairie home and glen, 
A half a million undows of slowly murdered men. 

AX e are commg, sadly commg, as the world can plamly see. 

Not to save the Lnion, but the contraband to free!"' 

And here is another choice specimen from the Standard's cmthology 
of campaign pKsetry: 

"Tliere is an old man of Sangamon 

AXlio has funushed us battle and famine ; 

His war for the nigger grows bigger and bigger — 

Poor, deluded, old man of Sangamon! " 

There was a Lincoln torchlight parade in Paterson on October 
27. '64, and the Jersey City "Lincoln Club" was in the line. The 
Standard learns that "the president of the club was arrested and put 
under bonds for having committed an aggravated assault upon a young 
man. He is a fit representative of the party to which he belongs." 
Don't you wonder the Lincoln Clubbers didn't commit a few murders! 
Perhaps the original of the button I am permitted to reproduce from 

22 




the Free Public Library museum was worn at that 
Paterson party. Dr. Gordon K. Dickinson could not 
verify that, but he does verify the fact that it was worn 
by a very staunch Lincoln man by the name of W. L. 
Dickinson, all honor to him! "Vote for Lincoln, if you 
want war taxes, starvation, abolition and a dissevered 
Union," was the final adjuration just the day before a Lincoln '64 Campaign 

1 Button. 

election. 

A coarse joke was perpetrated upon a loyal out-of-town newspaper 
for printing the following sonnet addressed to "Abraham Lincoln." 
It reads, apparently, like a very high tribute to the President: 

Lincoln ! be firm and fear not ; bigot men 

In vain assail thee with their senseless word: 

Nor heed the slaves to party and their lies 

Conveying censure. The historians pen — 

Oh. wand of magic! shall destroy the sneers. 

Laughter and carping of the would-be wise, 

Not in the future shall their voice be heard 

In making up its judgment on these years. 

Second to few patriots in esteem. 

And sorer tried than many thou hast been ; 

Now few the stars that through the darkness gleam. 

And not as yet are signs of daylight seen — 

Soon stars shall come, and when these pass away. 

Shall gleam the light that marks thy coming, glorious day! 

S. Oldcheap. 

The Standard chortled over the thing: Why, the name of the 
author should have been enough. What a sell ! And sold cheap, too ! 
.Anybody of ordinary intelligence should have seen the story in the 
initials of the first lines! Still, even the best intended effort sometimes 
fails, in war as well as in poetr>': S. Oldcheap didn't intend to be, but 
he turned out a fair prophet after all. 

Now that we have suggested some depths of the depravity of 
that campaign, let us turn for a moment to contemplate some of the 
high spots of that turbulent period. Standing out with the brilliancy 
of an illuminated cross against the darkness of night, is the report of 
a convention of Congregational ministers in the Tabernacle on Sei> 
tember 21.1 864. A newspaper was handed the moderator while the 
session was on ; he held up his hand to get the silence and attention of News of 
the assemblage and then he read the glorious news of Sheridan's victory Sheridan's 
over Early. The audience broke into tumultuous applause, and gradually Victory 
a voice, then others and others, caught up the swing of "Praise God 
from whom all blessings flow!" Shortly afterward, the conference 



formulated and adopted unanimously a jet of five resolutions calling 
upon the^r people to go to the polls next November 8th, and make the 
deasion that wll be "final and fatal to the hopes of traitors in arms 
and of conspirators in political councils." Mr. Holmes preached two 
red-hot sermons shortly thereafter on the subject of the election. He 
was not exactly an exponent of the theory that ministers should play 
neutrality- in pohtics; "our actions now should be such that we might 
relate to our children's children that we fought with Grant or Sherman 
in the Union War; or that in the great election of 1864. when the 
Peace Democracy were plotting with the Rebels and a man named 
McClellan was carrving their flag, we did what we could to help 
the boys in front of Richmond and deposited in the sacred ark of freedom 
a ballot for the Nation's hfe." 

There was a great "Union Rally" held on November 1. 1864. 
The 7"ime5 tells us that "the Tabernacle, besides being decorated with 
the fair forms and bright eyes of the Union ladies, was appropriately 
dressed with National flags and beautiful flowers." The speakers 
were General Car\- of Ohio, "VX'alter Rutherford. Esq., L. E. Chit- 
tenden, and John Milton Holmes. Master Hendershott "of drumming 
fame" called the meeting to attention with the long roll, and John 
Ov^-en Rouse made a stirring speech when he nominated Mr. Holme* as 
chairman of the meeting. The Union Glee Club, under the leadership 
of Col. Ehjdley S. Gregory sang appropriate music. And the people 
decided that when crossing a stream it was the better pohcy not to swap 
horses. 

One might beheve that in the common cause of ministering to 
the necessities of the families of soldiers at the front, or to the widows 
and orphans of those who had made the supreme sacrifice, there might 
be at least some slight forgetfulness of aiumosities. But such was not 
the case. The Standard was still the mouthpiece of those who carried 
the bitterness of their unfriendlmess to the policies of the Lincob admin- 
istration, to the extent of embarrassing the efforts made in the winters 
of 63. 64 and '65. toward uniting and co-ordinating the local rehef 
organizations. There were enough people to agree that one general 
orgamzation was the correct principle, and a course of lectures the first 
winter brought in the snug sum of $2,000. The popular lecture was 
then the finest t\-pe of diversion, and the Tabernacle, ha\-ing the largest 
auditorium, was thronged with the best people ever\- night of these 
fvmctions. 

Tlie Standard inveighed against the plan as well as the lecturers: 
Grace Greenwood s was a mere abolition harangue teeming with negroes 



from beginning to end; Dr. A. A. Willetts evidently tickled the Standard 
with his lecture on "Woman," and he said his ideal woman was the 
one mentioned in the last chapter of the Book of Proverbs, but the 
Standard thought she couldn't have been a nigger, and it couldn't 
understand how, in these days of woolly heads and niggerites, a man 
could get through an hour's oration without using up the nigger element 
pretty effectually; Edmund Kirke came from Boston, "which is at 
once the home of philanthropy, the hub of the universe and the hotbed 
of abolition," and his address had certainly made him amenable to 
the indignation of our people! As a matter of course, the money raised 
by such methods was tainted. 

James Gopsill answered the rather plain 
and offensive suggestions of the Standard 
about the expense account, by printing a 
detailed financial statement, and in the 
winter of '64 and '65, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd 
and 6th Ward funds were raised by direct 
popular subscription, while the 4th and 
5 th Ward funds were raised through 
another course of popular lectures in the 
Tabernacle. Grace Greenwood, Dr. E. 
H. Chapin, Edwin W. Whipple, Bayard 
Taylor, Dr. J. G. Holland and George 
W. Curtis were among the lecturers, and 
I fancy they must have said some things 
that were not pleasant reading for the 
copperheads, for the Standard cut them 
dead. One lecture in the course, however, 
was by Charles D. Deshler, once an 
editor on the Standard, and later "Military 
Agent from New Jersey." He was given 
a fulsome column of praise in his old 
paper. Leonard J. Gordon was the organ- 
ist at many of these lectures. As a new- 
comer in Jersey City I did not know, until too late, how deep was his 
reverence for Lincoln, nor why his pocket copy of Lincoln letters and 
speeches was the book from which we must read aloud as we rested 
awhile on our tramps together through Currie's Woods. 

Election day, 1 864, came on November 8th. The Standard 
that day editorially proclaimed what evidently it would have us believe 
was the reverse of what was happening then, in this rather remarkable 




Leonard J. Gordon in 1862. 



utterance: "If General McClellan is elected, speech will be free, 
opinion will be free, the press will be free. Men will no longer be 
subjected to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment for political opinions ; 
An 1864 and the doors of the political jails, bastiles and dungeons will be thrown 
Elysium wide open. His election will bring an end to drafts, conscriptions, 
mutual slaughters, debts and taxation." But that happy moment has not 
arrived, even yet. Instead, came the "dark brown taste of the morning 
after." In an obscure column — remote from the spread head and the 
glowing news of victorious Democracy (in Hudson County) — is the 

matter-of-fact announcement that "Abra- 
ham Lincoln is without doubt elected 
President of the United States." The 
Standard and its clientele in Jersey City 
undoubtedly looked for the defeat of Lin- 
coln ; and have you ever stopped to think 
what might have happened to the makings 
of the Lincoln Association in that case? 

.And you would have a hard time to 
discover from the Standard of the inaugu- 
ration period that Abraham Lincoln even 
figured in the exercises of Saturday, March 
4, 1863. An editorial column and a 
half was filled vith a screed headed 
"Andy Johnson;" it consisted of some 
home-made stew, amplified with a most 
villainous reprint from the Herald. The 
Herald reported Johnson's speech as nme- 
teen minutes in length, and printed it in 
short, disjointed sentences, interspersed 
with dashes ; and in case that failed to 
convey the impression intended, the news- 
paper remarked, "it is charitable to say 
that his condition was such that he was 
unfit to make a speech. He evidently did not shun Bourbon County 
on his way here." The Standard piously commented: "We devoutly 
pray that Heaven in its mercy will preserve the life of Abraham Lincoln 
during the next four years, if only to relieve the republic from the remote 
possibility of Andy Johnson's becoming the chief officer of the nation. 
Heaven preserve us from this further, deeper, unspeakable ingnominy." 
In the same spirit of religious observance, the paper printed in 
its issue of the next Friday the following 




CUbnt Collin* about 1863. 



hsMXAMxnoK Htmx. 



ADhaa iiep: t : £^s --rt 

Let wiiile foli^ : 
Biilig fotA Aie ; : r - i^ 

Aad Make bM Isfd oi «... 

Let «lide folks BO More fift Adr Ik£: 
Nor <lue Ins ads iqwuw e — 

Of ni^tv Liac^'h" — Ar^^a fest — 



Stud bj ^- 1 f; - i - s :—— r ; . : _ fir =sis »re^ 

-More c- - i 1^- i 

Said be:: :-:. I^-i rrr. i - ^^ ^sa. 

"Vbere ^ 1 Li : sUtokel. 



V. e -3.-e to tarn to die Tunes for any reil -e-".5 3.cc:jz:t :: -J:e 
-:;_:- :■.: : . as well as fw file poUicaz : ' -rtortaJ 

_ ~ : : ~ . " : — -T^?? last nausuraJ aAJre??- — ; : ■ ' r r^at 

:r-:f-;f ••• :r -.\..cc toiwaxc -:zr. ^ :~ ;- 

nnnQe&s ir. "e c ~ r^ : je^ r ; : _: e :r 

finish tte '.■•o:^ v. e ; ; : - _? : r - : ^ :_-; : :^:^ ::r 

him who sbaD have :. -e -f : ;f -; ; ;: /-; : r-;-?, 

to do all which may : r e i : ; ^ _ r a - :: ; l ; : e : f : - r 

oursaves and with o^» iiau^z^. 

The ne*vs of the fall of R::-;-; ; -5fz r ri. _: i. ;: : .e 
tov.-n. and the Tones most -.:.-: 5 editor wrote, "we 

are sorry for the Standard ;-; r -^ — .\-i J-.ere were quite a 

few of 'em in Jeisqr Gsj. Se : r - 5 e i ; - e 5 was pdf»Bsfaed 

OD Monday. April 10. 1865. ir; r 7 r :elebratiaB The 

broke loose. Uncle BiUy, p: : r e : ; . r 7 e ^ ^ - e Jtaud. Surrender 

climbed to the loft of the F - ? e : i r _ 7 cei its in 1865 

bdl- CoL Gregory got the 1865 version c: : -7 :cr er 

and sooo a long procession ranJJed duroogh r e 

songs of the day. They stopped at John M:l::r !— : -r? rf ;rr:r. 
ir.:i re ~:.::r :-e- one of his famous ^leedies; then J. Brmfcon Smith 
^wke .: "-.dly. Major PaogjbooL Ib the erer - : 

illnmir^::,--; -e ^^xrious ondbarst of ettdiBaaam.** 

fire apparatus w 3. 5 r.\:.ice>d. aind I rather fancy Empoe Hook ace _.. ::;r:. 
"including Uncle Dan." most have pickd qp the editors of be: 



PROCLAWATION! 

(ilorious lews] 



And his whole Army Captured! 



THE QUESTION OF 



U 



P lifliilil" 

SETTLED FOREVER. 

The Glorious OLD UNION already restored 
and Peace and Prosperity within our grasp. 

GOD BE PRAISED! 

Our Citizens are requested to 

ULiillNiTi 

PRIVATE AND PUBLIC buildings 

TO-]^IGHT, 

in honor of the Glorious News received 
this morning. 

ORESTES CLEVELAND, 
Monday, April 10, '5G. Mayor. 

From the Original document preserveil in the Free Public Library 




for both dwell lo\ingly upon certain entertainment thereunto apper- 
taining. The Times must have been particularlj* tickled for it declared 
that "from the unanimitj' with which all entered into the spirit of the 
occasion, it would seem that there were no copperheads now resident 
in Jersey City." 

On another page is a reproduction of a "flyer" which was dis- 
tributed from house to house m that hour of jubilation. The original 
is probably the only copy in existence, zmd it was presented bj' Miss 
M. Louise Edge to the Free Pubhc Librar>' from whose collection we 
have been privileged to reproduce it. A curious thing about the circular 
is the date — the original shows the yeau- as '56 instead of '65. Perhaps 
the printer might be excused for a little thing like that under the 
circumstances. Another feature of the composition, too, that will attract 
attention is that reference to the question of self-government being 
settled forever. On that same day the editor of the Standard was 
pohshing up the following literarj' gem: "The President is in a great 
measure subject to the \%ishes of the radical faction, who xsill consent 
to nothing but rapine, violence and devastation, the continuation of 
bloodshed and murder, the utter subjugation of the South and the finoJ 
reduction of the seceded States to the condition of conquered territories." 
Anything to help the cause along! 

The shouting and the tumult over the surrender had barely died The 
away before the news of the assassination of the President was spread Catas- 
before the world. Certainly, in the face of such a catastrophe we might trophe 
look for some mitigation of the flood of contumely. And in a measure 
this was noticeable — for a few days. A psychological change did 
appear in the copperhead papers, and the Standard re-acted like the 
rest. Its colurrm rules were "upset" on the inside pages so as to stripe 
those t%vo pages cind divide the columns \N'ith black lines about one- 
eighth of aui inch broad. That is, adl those two pages were in mourning, 
except a space about 1 inches deep at the top of the first two columns 
on page 3 ; they displayed a circus advertisement, with cuts of prancing 
horses and fuzzily dressed lady performers, and it made the mourning 
look like a joke. Mayor Cleveland got himself much disliked by the 
circus people for refusing a hcense to the show ; he told them that the 
people of Jersey City were going to frame their conduct with some 
solemnity at such a time, and they really didn't need a circus to help out. 

Then the Standard printed "personals, ' in which the subscribers 
declared they had never said they were glad the President was shot, 
as had been charged by other wicked people, who were particularly 

29 



called apoB to deast from ^reaciiii^ sach a ^lanrfcr. Oa April 23di. 
it iqwi n t ed a ^rariimo axticie from die Times of Aprfl ?^nft, etrrired 
'*WIio were the Acceaories?" Major Paagbo c a had wrj^en the orkinal 
editorial, aad had aa^ed bf maime wIk* soaae ol dhos weze. and 
hff Teiy broad soggEstiOB. wno soaBC «Win% w<aeL W^h a pecafaaf 
holy hmt, the StmaJarJ ivp i m t ed tfae Major's aitkie ■MJei a aear bead. 
"Alas, for tbe Raritj of CldstiaB Cbaoty!" To bM il asoiied dn 
anful lack of iIbs ^ealest viitne. Her? sr? z f?«r i^< i inn ■¥ of ife Abamz 

T'or BOBlfas pa;^ as a... -t- ive bees b ^ hif^ 

north sooies of craltf ■£- llirf sole 

enployseBt bas beem tbe ; : : . -? ^ad «fc- 

■mdaboi of President Lin: ~ . i at ao 

Ee howeter ■aastnMB, bare ed 

at dans no means howevo- " : - . ^ r 

Hctc in Jersey City as elsev. r i t t ^ t - e : _ - - _ - 

coin as a asmpeT, a tyrant, ar ; > : f : i ; - .iz - - - 

have applied to him the TJleic ec.Lieii _ : : ■ - 

Read the ^jeech of Hon. (?) A. Ji.:. . : - - 
the harangues of Cha itxy Borr. Juks ^ . 
or the daily diatiibes aid -vdc sL^das of th^ . 
Newark Joamed and tbe Awt a ic am StwnJsrd ^ 
impartial judgment of history decide if oor 3.r:i-g-r - - - 

is just." 

Other -e ? ?; -e-erences lold of "tbe wire :: ^f- f- 

man. an ex-c;-: - ■ e: readent here, wbo. wbea sbe r; 
shocking news gave ^er f- giat^catKM faf ■ddlgag u: 

Another man, a travele- - " -sn tiais. madk ;r—r ofcci- i : iziirks 

about the dead Presii rifiininM M ibe sane seat arose, 

remaxking at the 5 v- f ^ rsot wiai to be ~ ~ f' ~; 

of such language. » ..i :. : z.i. a Bttie less z-'_i-~.;-. i:^".;:: 

for the offender to throw r ~ - -t the v>-indow. but at the cnt-Ci. 
momoit the car jumped tbe track ' 

Almost as soon as the ; - ; e - The 

in Jersey Cit>-. Mayor Cle r . - Civic 

they assembled in the Council Cbanber of the City Hall that Saturday Ohser- 
evening. April 1 5th. .A cooumttee «rf Gkizeas aad membei? of C vxnce 

Coimcil from each ward was appototed. coasistiBS of A. O. Z-\ _ 
F. B. Betts, B. G- Clark and .Alderman Wm. Clarke from tbe 1st 
ward: Job Male. Johji H. Lyon. .Alexander '^Ikon aod AbknuB 
John McBnde. from the 2nd ward: Cornelius Xaa Votst. Meazies R. 



Case, Joseph McCoy and Alder- 
man R. K. Terry from the 3rd 
ward ; John Van Vorst, John H. 
Smyth, Daniel L. Reeve and Alder- 
man J. W. Pangborn from the 4th 
ward; Charles H. O'Neill, Herbert 
R. Clark, James Gopsill and Alder- 
man A. A. Gaddis from the 5th 
ward; A. S. Jewell, W. Moore, 
Isaac Houston and Alderman Pat- 
rick Duff represented the 6th ward. 
Major Z. K. Pangborn. M. R. 
Case, A. S. Jewell, Hon. D. S. 
Gregory and Hon. J. R. Worten- 
dyke were the committee appointed 
for draftmg appropriate resolutions. 
In the last of the six paragraphs of 
its patriotic expression, it was de- 
cided to hold the civic meeting in 
the Tabernacle the next afternoon. 
To this, practically every church in 
the city sent representatives. Rev, 
Dr. Imbrie presided ; Rev. Dr. 
Parmly offered prayer; and many 
others of the local clergy spoke to the vast audience. Rev. Dr. Harkness 
was particularly emphatic in demanding the stern execution of the law 
and condign punishment df the traitors. When he solemnly ejaculated, 
"God bless Andrew Johnson, President of the United States," there 
was an "Amen" from every part of the house — and, incidentally, the 
invocation was a finer thing than the disgusting comment of the Standard 
about "Andy" Johnson's inauguration and his daily conduct ever since. 

Mr. Holmes conducted a memorial service in the evening, preaching 
from the text, " Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over 
this Jordan," and from the people who heard that address, and from an 
intimate study of the life and services of that great preacher and his 
devotion to the loftiest public ideals, I can well believe that his discourse 
was of the finest and deepest inspiration. The Times published a very 
complete account of this great meeting in the Tabernacle. The Standard, 
pleading other demands upon its space — without mentioning the circus 
advertisement — disposes of it in an inch and a half, twelve lines, as a 
matter-of-fact. 

32 




Isaac Houston. 



The body of the martyred President, on the way to its last resting 
place, arrived in Jersey City at 1 o'clock on Monday morning, April 
24, 1865. The funeral train was made up of nine cars, and when 
it rolled into the station a great concourse of citizens were assembled. 
Municipal delegations from Jersey City, Hudson City, Hoboken, Bergen, 
Bayonne and Greenville were present. One witness of the scene tells 
us of the elaborate decorations of the station, in diagonal patterns of 
black and white, and the inscriptions "Be still, and know that I am 
God." and "A Nation's Heart was Struck, April 15, 1865" at the 
east and west ends of the building, respectively. The ferryhouse bore 
the motto "George Washington, the Father; Abraham Lincoln, the 
Saviour, of his Country." Minute guns were fired by the Hudson 
County Artillery and from the Cunarders docked nearby; the church 
bells were tolled. 

The guard of honor and other officials first alighted from the 
train and were greeted by delegations from here. A number of German 
singing societies were arranged along the platforms, and while the coffin 
was being removed from the funeral car, they sang "Integer Vitae." 
Then ten stalwart veterans raised the casket to their shoulders and bore 
it down along the north platform, toward the eastern end of the buildmg, 
then up along the south platform and out at the western entrance of 
the depot to the hearse which awaited on Hudson Street. 

The hearse was drawn by six iron-gray horses, each horse led 
by a groom in mourning and flanked by the guard of honor; the pro- 
cession moved through the crowded streets to the slip, where the new 
boat, the Jersey City was waiting. David T. Valentine's "Lincoln 
Obsequies in the City of New York" has preserved two very interesting 
pictures which I have borrowed for this story of mine. One of them 
shows the Jersey City dressed in her folds of crepe, her flags at half 
mast, with the draped funeral car on the deck. The other shows the 
arrival of the party at the "Jersey City Ferry" at Desbrosses Street, 
New York. Mr. Heck drew my attention to the fact that one Jersey 
City man at least was honored in Mr. Valentine's book — Brigadier- 
General John G. Ramsey, whose name was in the list of the guard 
of honor, which had accompanied the remains from Washington. Hon. 
Chauncey M. Depew— then Secretary of State of New York— was in 
Jersey City that morning, representing Governor Fenton who was un- 
avoidably absent, to receive the body in the name of the Empire State, 
and to escort it across the Hudson to the city. Mr. Depew is one of 
the few survivors of the long official reception list. 




Om ptc*MJHB pjp h I la^ne icjeuui io an ih iiii itf oa ob^ iisEonc Om 
ifae M ill i lM_ &at W3S ici^ ^ IiwiimIiiis fi^ 3^ Ubncm 
New Josey. k iIk Ts&eoiade en Itboc^ 30, 1S63. Of 
5 wat^am m jeatg Gty pwpet. iIm ii is piartiraBy 
i iccovd' ia Ae pifsess of ^ fmw^ Itprnod 
m ^^ Stamd.cr :. . -_• . : ■ _: 

bcK&daiy of Ifae 8BOO ~ r : ~ 

wfcoi ke was deanis c.~:t:.t -am 

tk< I wodd be ^aes- : : Wd. 

In. IVefaaaklBT- ttTt ". 

No 125, IMoa Leasee ; -^t: ;; t - £ i ;t : - tr 

9. 1864 toiiaidi 3, 1&67. Tke soiii 

Maidi30. 1863, i-z DTiiSendlkvv 

^mereleftiaAesetiErT iiofbe^cc: 

E T ■ ; T - - -^ Id dK iDr 

aad qiiri : : : t : . se a fncHi lor'f 

far aytigiL As a local : 

it IS of tke ImbIksI "s i i^: ; - t : ?- 

it wfl kaniy r - 
LUoB Ixassas br : 

set dowB ■ file bc>: -^ t e ftavor: ~Re9oKe 

Wiicr. tUs Omk e cibzcBs ~ 

a ujiic of fast-daf ; : . : : _ ; ^ nn Aqt ; - 

tolfaecidl Aaft ifttrt 
spot IB iDBs oesen ^ 
for tiie liUoB caDc - f ^ 
Mvice dbat asniA 5 - r 
by mf. biit wbofr - f 

So there yiM have 

otneas uMMBnt oJ ^ : ~ e . : ; — 

have beeaqadteas re: .: : e ;;—■>■:. 
froBi the CJaiteret C . . : 

Otee of the c-::-: :- -r -■. ; • -■:•,.;;■; :;-:-.£ 

■itheluytatea: - r ; - as $3.t)5x 

"twobwlift? : 

head saeaked ir ^- ; ; ; ; - ; ; 

Chaoe was sec ■ ; : ~ ; — ; r - ; - ■ : ; ; 

with the ^paik : — 

He Geoise TJi" -■-;;- — -- -r :r. 



self by signing as "secty \%-ith a sore thumb." But I am grateful to 
him and to the other secretaries because they have enabled me in 1919 
to tie up to the Lincoln Association so many who "were reported worthy 
to become members of this council." Hundreds of names are recorded, of 
men who have undergone the scrutiny of this patriotic group of Unionists, 
who were doing their bit in the tremendous job of crystallizing the Lincoln- 
ian idea. The book abounds with references that reveal the strong Union 
spirit of this group of men of Bergen, and at this point we can display the 
record of one historical meeting, on April 18, 1863. when E. C. 
Bramhall, Major Henr\' Gaines aind James Freeman were appointed 
a committee to draft resolutions on the death of Lincoln. These 
resolutions embody some pretty- plain talk about those responsible for 
the assassination, and about the political background of the day: 

"Whereas, by a sudden and awful visitation of Di^"ine Pro\-idence, 
Abraham Lincoln, President of these United States, has been stricken 
down by the hand of an assassin with an atrocity of conception and 
a fiendishness of purpose unparalleled in the history of nations ; therefore, 

"Resolved, that in this great national calamit>' we members of the 
Union League of America do recognize the hand of God to whose will and 
before whose name we would ever submissively and reverently bow. 

"Resolved, that in the carefully planned murder of our beloved 
Chief, and in the attempted murder of his Secretary' of State, we but 
witness deeper and more damning e\idence of the fiendish spirit which 
has inaugurated, animated and controlled the attempt to destroy the 
life of the Nation. 

"Resolved, that by this afflicting dispensation we are solemnly 
warned to no longer trifle with our self-resj>ect, disgrace our manhood, 
and imperil our liberties by any sympathy or leniency towards the 
leaders of this accursed dead rebellion. 

"Resolved, that in the death of Abraham Lincoln we are called 
to mourn the loss of our chosen leader, an honest man. a pure patriot 
and a martyr to the cause of civil liberty, human freedom and human 
progress. 

"Resolved, that we will give to Andrew Johnson, now President 

of the United States, our cordial and unwavering support in his efforts 

to prosecute the great work which has fallen upon him, to a successful 

issue. 

"Resolved, that as an emblem of our sorrow we will wear the 

distinctive badge of mourning for thirty days." 

As Bergen Council. Union League of America, grew and pros- 

p>ered it took up its quarters in Library Hall. They indulged in their 

.56 



pleasant diversion of inculcating the duties of American citizenship there 
one night — Tuesday, September 30, 1 867 — or perhaps with the purpose 
of doing some social welfare work. They called in Rev. F. Lummis. 
a Greenville Methodist minister, to speak for them, and the Standard 
goes nutty over his oratory, "if such disgusting and disconnected remarks 
as he uttered and his fanatic maimer of deliver>- can be called orator>'. 
His ravings were confined to abuse of President Johnson, the elevation 
of the negro, the depreciation of the whole white race, and an outrageous 
and shameful attack upon our German citizens." I guess it must have 
been interesting! The Standard continues: "Had any man given 
utterance to such abuse of Abraham Lincoln as this fanatic did of Presi- 
dent Johnson, he would have been instamtly lynched on the spot where he 
stood, and Rev. F. Lummis would doubtless have either sided in or 
encouraged the act — but his wild harangue was apparently recersed 
with the greatest favor!" Isn't that quaintly humorous! 

By another strange bit of the good fortune that comes to an 
antiquarian once even.- long while, I was given a program of the exercises 
of a "Meeting in Bergen, April 19, 1863, in Commemoration of the The Town 
Death and Burial of Abraham Lincoln." The copy is probably the Mourns 
only one in existence, and it has its value as a souvenir of an occasion 
of most solemn import to the world and at the same time of identifying 
those who were proud to honor "the late President of the United States." 
It came to me from R. W. Woodward, whose father was A. A. 
\\ oodward, one of the councilmanic committee in charge of the affair. 
The senior Mr. Woodward was elected to membership in Bergen Council, 
No. 125, November 29. 1864. 

These commemorative gatherings were held all over the countr>- 
on April 19, 1865, between the hours of 1 1 and 3. It is well worth 
remembering that the date is commemorative of the Battle of Lexington, 
when "embattled farmers ' projected the astounding idea of opposing 
trained soldiery in defense of their liberties: the war \se have just ended 
was won because idealists like them still lived in America. 

Most of the names on that program are on the roster of Bergen 
Council. Perhaps some of my readers may need to be informed that 
in those days the town of Bergen was a separate municipality with 
a Board of Councilmen and a President, then John Hilton : and a 
Town Clerk, then Charles Keenan. President Lincoln was assassinated 
on Good Friday night. April 14, 1 865 ; the citizens of Bergen assembled 
in town meeting on Monday night. .April 1 7th. to arrange for the services 
for the following ^^ ednesdav. It must have been an embarrassing thins 






MEETING IN BERGEN, 

uf^JPI^IIL. 19, 1865, 

IN COMMEMORATION OF THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

LA.TE PliESIDElNrT Or THE XJIsTITED SXA.TBS: 

PRESIDENT, 

Dr. J. M. CORNELISON. 

VICE- P REV DENTS. 

JOHN HILTON. E. D. WaKEMAN 

HENRY FJTCH. CAPT A ST JOHN, 

J. G. I'ARKER. M. S ALLISON 

MA RSI/A l^Q VIIEELAND 

ORDER OF EXERCISES- Coimnencing at 2i P. M. 

Opening Hymn 

Prayer Rev. Dr. Taylor 

Address Rev. E. W. French 

Ode By School Children 

Address Kev. S. Y. Monroo 

Address A. A. Ilardenlmrg, Esq 

Doxology Old Hundred 

Closing Prayer Key Mr. Duryeii 

Benediction R^'v. Mr. Monroe 

N. B. — The meeting will be held on the ^^rounds ot' 
A. Bonnell, on Park Place. If it ruins, the mecti-ng 
uill bo in tlic Presbyterian Church. 

The Fire Department, the Council, and Board of 
Education, will.convene at the Town H;ill, nt 7 o'clock. 

(.'ouKCii. aiMstn I LK 
JOHN HILTON, li L. .SMITH. <- -V.v.S H<)i;v. 

HKNKY FITCH. HARfilSON I Rl.< K. W ALTER ST OFM. 

S>.«i.MJ W.MIt> 

A. L. MACDUFF. GARRET VREELAND. X- B. WaKEMAN 

TinBi> WAni) 
WM. KRENY. J. 1> CLEVEL.ANP, A A. WoOItWARD 

By order of the Committee of ArrangcmentN, 

JOHN HILTON, Chairman. 



to communicate, but town clerk Keenan 
had to inform the Council that up to the 
previous Saturday the town was without 
a flag to display upon the Town Hall, 
and that it had lacked the proper material 
for draping the councilmanic chambers. 
Then A. A. Hardenbergh, "at the bank," 
had come to the rescue by advancing 
$130, which the Council promptly and 
unanimously voted to reimburse to Mr. 
Hardenbergh, with thanks of the Council. 
At that meeting, there were present 
John Hilton and Councilmen Bowkei, 
Hardenbergh, Hutchings, Smith and G. 
Van Horn: absent Brinkerhoff and J. C, 
Van Horn. The formal reading of the 
call for the meeting, signed by A. A. 
Hardenbergh and Garret Van Horn, and 
reciting the circumstances of the tragedy 
and asking for a citizen's meeting, being 
concluded, a committee from the council 
•was appointed, consistmg of Councilmen 
Hutchings from Columbia ward; Smith 
from Franklin ward; Hardenbergh from 

Communipaw ward; and Garret Van Horn. The Board of Education 
was requested to dismiss the schools, in order that the children might 
participate in the ceremonies. A committee of citizens was also ap- 
pointed by John Hilton to escort the body of the President across the 
river when it passed through here on the way west. This committee 
consisted of John M. Cornelison, Hartman Van Wagenen, Cornelius 
C. Van Reypen, Edgar B. Wakeman, Capt. E. C. Hopper. George 
Gifford, Mindert Van Horn, Jeremiah D. Cleveland and Wm. Keeny. 

April 19, 1865, in Bergen was a day of "balmy, vernal sunshine; 
the beauty of the loveliest day of opening Springtime was about us; 
but the shadow of the wings of the angel of death seemed to darken 
all the land." Commerce was everywhere silent; the Times notes with 
especial pleasure that all liquor saloons were closed; all places of public 
resort were deserted ; the whole neighborhood was sombre in habiliments 
of woe. 

The commemoration services were inaugurated by a procession 




John Hilton 





^TEAMBB 



S^aOe^^alS: 



a 




that started at Prospect Hall at the western side of the junction of 
Jewett, Storms and Fairmount Avenues, just south of the present residence 
of James E. Pope, at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and then 
marched to the grounds of Alex. Bonnell on Park Street. There were 
1 , 1 00 school children in the procession ; and every time I pass what 
they used to call "Aleck Bonnell's orchard," I like to think of that 
stately building which our friend John T. Rowland has designed as 
the Lincoln High School, as a fit and beautiful memorial with which 
Jersey City has perpetuated that meeting of those who first honored 
Lincoln there. 

Of course no real civic function in those times would be complete 
■without the firemen, so all the Bergen companies were out in full force 
and uniform. The firemen, as well as the school children, wore special 
mourning badges, and I have one of each of these, doubtless the only 
ones now extant. Then there were the councilmanic committee, the 



Board of Education, and citizens in general, altogether some 3,000 
people, not counting the school children. A pavilion had been erected, 
and, advancing to the front of the platform. Marshal Garret Vreeland 
announced Dr. John M. Cornelison as president, and John Hilton, 
Henry Fitch, John G. Parker, E. B. Wakeman, A. P. St. John and 
M. S. Allison as vice-presidents of the meeting. The council committee, 
consisting of John Hilton, R. L. Smith, Garret Van Horn, Henry 
Fitch, Harrison Price, Walter Storm, A. L. MacDuff, Garret Vreeland, 
E. B. Wakeman, Wm. Keeny, J. B. Cleveland and A. A. Woodward 
had seats reserved for them inside the railing. 

First the audience sang Covvper's 
hymn, "God moves in a Mysterious 
Way;" Abraham Speer led them 
out there under the budding trees. 
Then Rev. Dr. B. C. Taylor of 
Bergen Reformed Church offered a 
prayer. Rev. E. W. French of the 
First Presbyterian Church of Bergen 
followed with an address, of finely 
phrased patriotic spirit. The school 
children sang "America" next. Rev. 
S. Y. Monroe followed with an ad- 
dress which kept the audience "con- 
stantly beaming sympathy with the 
tenderness, courage, hopefulness, and 
piety of the martyred President." 

A. A. Hardenbergh was the last 
speaker, and he gave an address which 
was noted as dealing masterfully with 
the spirit of the occasion and the char- 
acter of the man for whom they had 
come there to mourn. The concluding 

prayer was offered by Rev. W. R. Duryea of the Lafayette Reformed 
Church; in his petition he returned especial thankfulness for the fact of 
Andrew Johnson because he would punish the traitors who had per- 
petrated the murder of the President. Then with the audience standing, 
the Doxology was sung by the audience, and the Benediction pro- 
nounced by Rev. Mr. Monroe. 

The Bergen Town Council minutes have saved a very nice little 
note of this meeting for us: the entire cost of the commemoration service 




Kev. B. C. Tavlor 



was $500. The bills were ordered paid, and then a resolution was 
passed, testifying to the efficiency of John Hilton and his committee 
in organizing and carrying out the purposes of the meeting in such 
dignified and capable a manner. This was ordered spread in full 
upon the minutes. 

And before we leave Lincoln High School grounds again — 
should it not be an inspiration to those of this generation who have 
the high privilege and opportunity to sit within the classic bounds of 
Aleck. Bonnell's orchard, to recall that fine gathering in 1 865 ? The 
whole town had turned out to honor the memory of a man who had 
certain advanced notions about human Hberty and national life; and 
in all the years ever since in Jersey City the Lincoln Association 
has nobly kept those ideals before the people of its own times, as no other 
institution has done. 



The New Another potential factor in crystallizing the Lincoln Association 

England that was to be, has been pointed out with especial directness by those 
Societies of our political fellow-citizens who did not like the New Englanders. 
It is rather difficult for us of this generation to visualize anything like 
a friendly feeling in remarks like those printed in the local newspapers, 
and to which I have already referred at some length. "The fact is 
that Yankee blood is not pure; it is more than half nigger," said the 
Telegraph in 1857. The New Englanders had come to Jersey City 
a score ot years before the Civil War and brought their New England 
ideals with them, ideals which might be said in all candor to be some- 
what opposed to those of the Telegraph and its brand of kultur. 

How important a part these Yankees played in the making of 
the Lincoln sentiment in Jersey City may be surmised by a 
casual reading of the biographical sketches in various local historical 
and biographical publications. Men from New England filled our 
pulpits, taught our schools, healed our sick, kept our stores, and in- 
fluenced our political destinies. By the middle '50's there were enough 
of these New Englanders in our midst who were touched by that age- 
old weakness, home-longing, to organize a New England Society of 
Jersey City. At the centre of the movement was a young man named 
Alfrederick Smith Hatch; he came here from Burhngton, Vermont, 
and was first a clerk in, and in I 857, cashier of the Bank of Jersey City, 
then located on part of the site now occupied by our Federal Building. 
In passing, it will not be without interest to observe that his income was 
pubHshed in the Government tax list of 1864 as $75,000. Mr. Hatch 



as a young man was given to a devotion to what he believed to be 
high-principled things. One of them was a native abhorrence of the 
institution of slavery. About the same time Lincoln's name was men- 
tioned — just barely mentioned — in connection with Douglas' in those 
debates, Mr. Hatch got into a local row on the same question; the 
Telegraph let him off with something like this: "Much is to be allowed 
for the extravagant assertions of a man of Mr. Hatch's peculiarly 
excitable temperament and strong anti-slavery feeling." 

Mr. Hatch was organizer, speaker, treasurer, and general utility 
man for the New England Society of Jersey City, now a forgotten, 
unknown institution. Somewhere in a Jersey City attic stored away 
in an old trunk, I have no doubt there is a bunch of dinner-cards, 
or newspaper clippings, or something from which that torn-out page of 
our local history may be reconstructed. The first dinner of the Society 
was held on Forefathers' Day, December 22, 1857, in Lyceum Hall, 
and eight years afterward (at the dinner of 1865) one of the speakers, 
growing reminiscent, lets us into the secret of a turbulent scene at the 
original dinner when somebody who had been invited to eat, started 

to fight, "but one of our New England brethren, Mr. P boldly 

stepped into the arena and unhorsed him at the first encounter." There 
is a very broad insinuation that the trouble arose over the elaborate 
divergence of political views held by the forensic combatants. 

If I came from Vermont, instead of Pennsylvania, to Jersey City, 
I think I should never cease to remind this town of what it owed to 
its Green Mountain ancestry. First and foremost was Wm. L. Dick- 
inson, who came here from the University of Vermont, to found a 
select school for boys in the Lyceum building in 1 839, and who 
became the father of our educational system, as well as of an interesting 
family. He, too, was one of the New England Society folk who did 
not have far to go when Lincolnian platforms were to be reached. 
Dr. Wheelock H. Parmly, Rev. Hiram Mattison, Rev. John Hanlon 
— all Vermonters — were great spiritual lights in their day and generation, 
and their names appear at many a function of the New England Society. 

The newspaper literature of the second annual dinner of the 
Society, in 1859, gives us some of the names of people who were active 
participants: David Gould, president, 48 Essex St; W. L, Dickinson, 
158 Wayne St; H. C. Dickinson, 234 York St.; A. S. Hatch, 
treasurer, 52 Grand St. ; Joel C. Lane, 45 Grand St. ; E. H. Rockwell, 
secretary, 228 York St.; W. H. Talcott, 61 Grand St.; Samuel L. 
Pearson, 1 79 Grand St.; Harvey Fisk, 254 South 5th St. The New 



Englanders had plenty else to do in Jersey City for the next few years — 
and this is one of my reasons for elaborating upon the theme of a New 
England Society before the Lincoln Association — and they announced 
that their celebration for 1 865 would be held in Taylor's Hotel, and 
open to all those "residents of Jersey City honored by birth in New 
England or born of New England parentage. * * * Their 
Society had been honored by the maledictions of secessionists and cop- 
perheads; now that the principles they stood for had been so signally 




W. L. Dickinson and his family about 1856. 
(The boy in short skirts was later president of the Lincoln Association.) 

vindicated they proposed to resume their annual dinners which had been 
suspended since 1860." I can find but a few names mentioned as 
among the throng who attended it. Rev. Dr. Parmly, Rev. Dr. Mattison, 
Rev. John Milton Holmes, Jacob Weart, S. B. Ransom, A. S. Hatch 
and Miss Sarah Gould were among the speakers. Wm. E. Pearson, 
J. W. Pangborn, S. B. Ransom and D. S. Gregory, Jr., were on the 
committee that year. 

The "special correspondent" of the Times dated a letter from a 
place called Bergen, late in I 865, in which the startling news is suggested 
that the Yankees had not only taken Jersey City, but that hilltop 



stronghold of the Dutch as well. For there was a New England 
Society of Bergen in 1865, that met that year for its repast of pumpkin 
pie, doughnuts, walnuts and roast turkey, at the residence of its vice- 
president, E. Bliss. The gallant Major Henry Gaines responded to 
the toast "The Daughters of New England;" E. Bhss, "New England 
Homes on Bergen Hill;" T. H. Bennet, "Yankee Enterprise;" and 
others. From the reports of its dinners in later years, I glean the names 
of John G. Parker, president; A. A. Woodward, vice-president; R. 
B. Seymour, secretary; Henry Gaines, treasurer; Col. G. W. Thorne, 
revenue collector for this district; E. B. Wakeman, Edw. Doolittle, 
A. G. Avery, J. M. Barrows, Charles Butrie, Captain Howe, T. J. 
Kimball. 

A great many of these New England names have now faded 
from Jersey City history, too, but the men who bore them were here long 
enough to play a splendid part in the dramatic events of their generation. 
It seems impossible to separate their allegiance as New Englanders from 
the cause for which Lincoln's life was lived; and I am sure we can 
all pay our tribute from "this distant shore of time" to their superb 
loyalty in the city of their adoption in those dark days of the war. 

Now one might presume, even if he were not gifted with extra- Reconstruc- 
ordinary powers of imagination, that the reconstruction period should tion Days 
have witnessed a wholesale abandonment of the old vituperative spirit. 
The assassination of the President was followed by a wave of horror 
and repugnance; those who directly or indirectly, nearly or remotely, 
aided or abetted or condoned the crime should have turned over a 
new page in their history. But did they? We can not begin to com- 
prehend such an alignment of our own people in those years, but most 
of us of to-day know a little about a certain national psychology. 

For a generation before the Civil War, as I have pointed out, 
unbridled license of speech and absolute intolerance with others' political 
opinions were rampant; the dogma of State's Rights and all its corollary 
heresies had obsessed the political factors of the nation. But do you 
suppose for one minute that people's souls were converted by the tragedy 
of that Good Friday night of I 865 ? One does not dispossess himself 
of the teachings, traditions and training of a lifetime quite so easily 
as he does of his worn out underwear. Unrepentant, unabashed, un- 
ashamed the ancient policies of obstructionism and destruction were pur- 
sued to a nauseating degree. And the fiery Major Pangborn pilloried 
them with his splendid powers of invective and scorn. The period 
of the "bloody shirt" was on, and the newspaper history and the oratory 
of the Lincoln Association blazes with it. 



June 1, 1865, was appointed by President Johnson as a Lincoln 
Memorial and Fast Day. The big observance of the day was naturally 
where the biggest crowd could be gathered, in the Tabernacle. Mr. 
Holmes was at his best, and the Times applauded him tremendously 
the next day for it. In it he told many anecdotes about Lincoln, one 
of them related to him by a widow in Jersey City with two sons, one 
mortally wounded and the other badly hurt at Gettysburg. The mother 
tried in vain to have one of the boys sent home to her, but she could 
not secure his discharge; so she finally went to Washington and did 
the amazing thing of reaching the President and getting a note from him 

like this: "Let Edwin F. P , named in my note on the other 

half of this sheet be discharged — A. Lincoln." The widow showed 
Mr. Holmes the letter and told him how "he spoke to me as though 
I had been his mother." I should like to know who "Edwin F. 
P " was, and the mother who was so honored. 

Now just to show the contrast, here was the Standard's reaction. 
Lincoln was not so very long dead in June, 1 865 ; the Standard was 
running a number of intended-to-be facetious articles entitled "Spelling 
Lessons for Youth." In one of the Hsts of words, "T-a-b-e-r-n-a-c-1-e. 
a large hall much used for political elocution," was the funny crack at 
the place where Mr. Holmes had paid his tribute to the great President. 
The following October 9th, Anne E. Dickinson gave a lecture for the 
benefit of the Children's Home there. Her subject was rather suggestive 
of what would happen when you chucked a match into a gunpowder 
can: "The Record of the Democratic Party during the Rebellion." 
And it happened. She opened her address with a reference to the 
"exigencies which called a woman from her wonted sphere to enter 
the loathsome charnel house of the democratic party." In a long account 
of the lecture, or harangue as the Standard called it, the lecturer was 
alluded to as "Gentle Anna," "a gentleman of the female persuasion," 
"a fair pythoness; words of bitterness crawled from her red and beautiful 
lips like foul spiders crawling from the blushing petals of a rose." And 
so on, "We say nothing," concluded the Standard, "of the questionable 
taste of turning the pulpit into the stump, further than that the fact of 
our Saviour having been cradled in a manger is no reason why a church 
edifice should be transmogrified into a stable." 

The civic side of the Fourth of July celebration was arranged for 
the Tabernacle that year (1865). Arrangements had been made by 
Alderman McBride for the function, and the whole affair was written 
up by the editor of the Standard beforehand — but it didn't happen at 
all. In their minute book may still be seen the provision made by the 



E ■; 1 -E ? t £ .s .J s J ? * 

o =; -,■ 5 i. -^ -^ 'C ~ ^ ^ r- 2 5; ; 






I ^ £ 






••i I •? -i ij 5 '^ ^. >: *. yj e s • 
tiK . . . . . 






^ O ~'^£r*S C -, X^ 5 5 =5 "si C ^ 5 '^ :S 5; g s ^^ ^ ^ 2t ^, ^.^ 







The Inaugural Ball of 1861. Major Pangborn was one of its managers. His name appears third column 
from the right, tenth name counting up from the bottom. 




trustees that the permission was to be re- 
voked if the orator was not acceptable 
to them. The Times said that the Munici- 
pal celebration consisted of a procession 
by Mayor Cleveland and Alderman Gaf- 
ney. The Congregationalists were still 
choice, it seems, about their reputation as 
Lincolnians. 



From this perspective of years, I think 
it may be stated without fear of success- 
ful contradiction that the most forceful 
character in Jersey City for the largest 
part of his life here was Major Z. K. 
Pangborn. His contribution to the public 
life of his times was a civic asset that no 
man can truly measure. He came here 
shortly before the Civil War closed, I 
have been informed by David R. Daly, at 

Major Zebina Kellogg Pangborn ,i • , r I I r\ 11 C r^ 

the instance or Hon. JJudley o. Liregory, 
and his immediate identification with the Times meant the co-ordination 
of his unique talents as a newspaper man with high opportunity for 
public service. 

Mighty few people appreciate his real greatness; they remember 
the closing years of his life with much more vividness than they do 
his dauntless, virile young manhood ; and when the real historian of 
Jersey City comes, I well know whom he will honor. He had a most 
intense detestation of anything opposed to the spirit of the Union and 
a regard for Lincoln that transcended veneration. Through the courtesy 
of Mr. Geo. H. Blake, I am able to present a very tangible and in- 
teresting souvenir of his association with affairs Lincolnian: he was one 
of the committee of arrangements for the first Lincoln inaugural ball 
in 1861. 

The Major's likes and dislikes were always open; that was his 
character. And he could wither an opponent with irony, or curl him 
up with the scorn of his logic. For example, he disliked Dickens, for 
some reason, although "chawming Chawles' " reputation managed to 
survive that ; and he made fun of Matthew Arnold when that philosopher 
came to Jersey City. He had rather pronounced aversions in certain 
sectarian directions, which he was never careful to conceal. These 
things seem humorous, perhaps, but when you see them recorded in 

4S 



his diary — the Times, and then the Journal — day after day, year after 
year, you get a splendid estimate of his sterhng purposes and the 
openness, vigor and earnestness he used in effecting them. So, when 
the time came that he could use his extraordinary intellectual equipment 
to such an end he joined — he was, m a large measure — the Lincoln 
Association. 



I have gone through a great many column miles of the history of The Year 
Jersey City, as her contemporary newspapers have written it; I hope of the 
I have succeeded in conveying the inpression by the few samples of Founding 
local color printed on previous pages that there was urgent need of a 
Lincoln Association in 1865, the year apparently indicated by the 
present literature of the Association as that of its founding. But I 
regret to say that I can find no documentary evidence of the organization 
of the Lincoln Association or of its doings earlier than February 12, 
1867, and I quote no less an authority for the statement that that was 
the date of its founding, than Major Z. K. Pangborn himself. 

In the third number of the newly established Journal, on May 4, 
1867, the story of its permanent organization was printed, and the date 
of the previous February 1 2th was specifically named ; further con- 
firmation of this is supplied in another story in the Journal, the following 
December, in these words: "The Association was formed on Feb- 
ruary 12th last (1867), the anniversary of the birthday of Abraham 
Lincoln, by eight gentlemen who met socially and, after a discussion 
of the subject, voted to organize as a Lincoln Association which should 
commemorate the birthday of the lamented President and in other ways 
seek to cherish the memory of his virtues and public services. Since 
that date regular monthly meetings have been held, and occasional 
extra meetings, all of which have been pleasant and profitable." At 
that time (December 24, 1867), the Association numbered forty-three 
members. 

The meeting for permanent organization above referred to was 
held at Zschau's Union House, 146 Newark Avenue, on May 3, 1867. 
The following officers were elected: President, David W. Weiss; 
vice-president, Benjamin Russell; secretary, William B. Dunning; 
treasurer. Earl P. Lane; steward, Charles A. Zschau. At that meeting 
the following new members were elected: Hon. James Gopsill, Maj. 
Z. K. Pangborn, Capt. Charles H. Laning, Dr. Adolphus Kirsten, Dr. 
Selnow, William W. Ward, Louis Tetens, James C. Orr, John W. 
Pangborn, Henry T. Lee, George H. Whipple, Allen T. Waterman, 
and Prof. Charles Larwell. 

4!) 




Judge Stephen Quaife 



From other sources I have gleaned the 
names of the Httle, yet memorable, com- 
pany which met at Zschau's on February 
12, 1867, for what people then thought 
was the first formal celebration by a 
Lincoln Association: David W. Weiss, 
Benjamin Russell, Earl P. Lane, Prof. 
Charles Knowles, Charles Baker, Dietrich 
Kuhn, Peter Kolb, and C. A. Zschau. 
Mr. Kolb contributed some German songs 
to the festivity of that historic occasion. 
If this present publication will call forth 
any authentic records of any earlier meet- 
ings, I am sure the historian of the Lincoln 
Association will be proud to add them to 
his archives. 

There was a meeting of the Association 
April 15, 1867, attended by about 100 
persons, whose names were not considered 
important enough by the reporter for the 
Times to get into print, save that of Judge 
Stephen Quaife, whose singing procured for him that distinction. 
Then came the organization meeting of May 3rd. In its report of the 
semi-annual meeting of September 5, 1867, the Journal informs us that 
this gathering was held in "their rooms at Zschau's, Newark Avenue." 
The event of that evening was the presentation to the president, D. 
W. Weiss, Esq., of an elegant photograph album containing the Hke- 
nesses of all the members of the Association. The presentation speech 
was made by Major Pangborn, at the request of the members. Has 
anybody who reads this ever seen that album? Brief speeches were 
also made by Capt. A. S. Cloke, Benj. Van Riper, Benjamin Russell, 
W. W. Ward, Earl P. Lane, Dr. Adolphus Kirsten, Capt. William 
B. Dunning and others. Mr. Larwell's excellent singing was commented 
upon in the paper, and so was the generous collation where "the wines 
flowed freely," 

At the next meeting, on October 3, 1867, the proceedings were 
along the hne of commemorating the emancipation proclamation. Fhe 
company gathered at Zschau's, as usual. Benjamin Van Riper made 
an eloquent speech, in the course of which he recited T. Buchanan 
Read's "Sheridan's Ride;" then Capt. Albert S. Cloke, one of "Little 
Phil's" troopers, gave some personal reminiscences of the great cavalry 



leader. Other speakers were Allen T. Waterman, William W. Ward, 
Capt. Wm. B. Dunning and Joseph Acton. Benjamin Russell gives 
an interesting bit of background for having made a red-hot speech 
denouncing the "treason" of Andrew Johnson. Professors Larwell 
and Knowles rendered musical selections, and Messrs. Waters and 
Zschau told some Lincoln stories. The Journal does not state what 
was the hour when Carl turned out the lights, but it must have been 
on the morning after. On Thursday, November 7th, there was another 
informal meeting "and the proceedings were, as usual, interesting." Judge 
Hough, Mr, Steele, Captain Cloke and Benjamin Van Riper were the 
speakers. 

One may naturally be prepared by 
these reports of late hours and probable 
convivialities for the announcement of that 
famous ball by the Lincoln Association. 
The Lincolnians' ladies were included in 
that function, which was held on Christ- 
mas eve, 1 867, in Library Hall, that class- 
ical building yet standing at the corner of 
Summit Avenue and Grand Street. Dod- 
worth's band furnished the superb music; 
at 1 o'clock they played the opening 
march "Grand Entree, Lincoln" and at 
5 in the morning they wound up with 
"Home, Sweet Home." For some 
reason, individual toilettes were not 
described, although we are assured 
that the beautiful ladies and their dresses were most bewitching. 

It seems curious that the Journal found it necessary to incorporate 
in its story of the dance the statement that no liquor was sold or 
obtainable on the premises or nearby. Champagne, of course, did 
not count, for another sentence tells us that that was served at the supper, 
free for those who chose to use it, just like ice water. Mr. Green was 
the capable caterer. Benjamin Van Riper was floor manager; he was 
assisted by William W. Ward, Joseph Acton, and James C. Orr. The 
reception committee was William B. Dunning, C. A. Zschau, and E. 
P. Lane. Some of these days, I hope to find one of the orders of 
dancing which some sweet Jersey City girl may have laid away with 
a little faded flower in memory of that glorious night ! 

On Thursday, February 6, 1 868, the Association held their 
regular monthly, as well as the annual, meeting of members at their 

51 




Library Hall. 



rooms at Zschau's. The Journal was so excited over a distinction 
paid to Capt. Dunning that it overlooked such unimportant details as 
telling us of the progress of the big dinner or who was elected to the 
officiate of the Association. The Captain was made the recipient 
of a heavy hunting case gold watch bearing this inscription: "From 
the Lincoln Association of Jersey City to their Secretary, William B. 
Dunning, February 6, 1868." The Journal continues: "The pre- 
sentation was followed by certain agreeable exercises — bibulous, gus- 
tatory and social. We congratulate our associate upon having been thus 
watched to some purpose. We have always found him on time and have 
no doubt he will be as much so as ever. The only possible objection we 
could have to the affair being a slight apprehension that he may be 
induced to run on tick, which is not according to the Evening Journals 
rules of procedure." 

That Great For some weeks of December and January, 1867-8, the Journal 

Dinner of gives us many illuminating suggestions as to the prospects for the forth- 
'68 coming function, which was referred to, quite as a matter of course, 

as the first real Lincoln dinner. Dear only knows how many Lincoln 
dinners had been absorbed on all sorts of occasions that offered excuse 
for congregating, but this was to be the great dinner. There were 
300 tickets issued at $5 each ; there were to be wonders of cuisine ; 
a feast of reason and a flow of soul such as Jersey City had never 
before contemplated. Four sets of committees were at work: In- 
vitation — Albert S. Cloke, Z. K. Pangborn, Daniel McLeod, Joseph 
Acton and Adolphus Kirsten. Reception — Benjamin Russell, James 
Gopsill, William B. Dunning, John Ramsey, and LeRoy Schermerhorn. 
Banquet — Benjamin Van Riper, William W. Ward, Earl P. Lane, 
Jacob M. Merseles and Charles H. Laning. Music — Dudley S. 
Gregory, Jr., P. Bethune Steele. Edward Reimal, Charles A. Zschau, 
John Hough and Theodore Baker. Sentiments — David W. Weiss, 
Charles Larwell, James Doxey, James C. Orr and Eugene Knowles. 

It took several issues of the Journal, commencing with Tuesday, 
February I 3, 1 868, to tell the wonders of this, the first great banquet 
of the Lincoln Association of Jersey City. There were 1 3 formal 
toasts. David W. Weiss presided with becoming dignity and suavity ; 
Col. Gregory's Glee Club made the banquet hall ring with their patriotic 
songs ; the 7 1 st Regiment band rendered superb selections. Altogether 
the report is spread out over a dozen columns, and certainly no one 
could question the fact that the Lincoln Association had arrived then ! 
Rev. Dr. H. A. Cordo of the North Baptist Church invoked Divine 



blessing on the sumptuous meal, and then they were all off for an hour 
and a half. 

Secretary William B. Dunning read the letters and telegrams 
received from distinguished men who might have been guests; such 
folk as Robert T. Lincoln, Schuyler Colfax, Henry Wilson, Secretary 
Edwin M. Stanton, Lieutenant-General W. T. Sherman, John A. 
Logan and many other notables who were cheered to the echo as their 
messages were read to the company. The report tells us that although 
it was the design to exclude all strictly political matters, "we noticed 
that every allusion to General Grant called out the heartiest cheers." 
The General was elected President the following November. 

With a fine reminiscent sense, the governors of the 37th annual ban- 
quet in 1 902 reprinted that remarkable list of toasts responded to in 1 868, 
in the dinner souvenir of that year, and the printer started it off in bold- 
'face type "24 years ago;" it should have been "34 years ago" — but the 
blunder isn't so flagrant, considering the thing they intended to per- 
petuate. In passing, a couple of other curious slips are noticed in going 
through these old records. For example, there were two "21st annual 
banquets;" one in 1886, and another in 1887; there was no 23rd, 
perhaps for that reason; they jumped from the 22d in 1888 to the 
24th in 1 889. The 1 3 toasts of 1 868 were inaugurated by Major 
Pangborn: "To the memory of Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday 
we commemorate:" then came Hon. John Davidson of Elizabeth, 
on "George Washington;" Hon. Dudley S. Gregory on "The President 
of the United States" — and I think there was perhaps a bit of a "frost" 
right there; at any rate, Mr. Gregory talked quite a bit about his having 
lived during the lives of every one of them since the second, and not so 
much about Mr. Johnson. Charles H. Wehle of Hoboken responded 
to "The Congress;" Jacob Weart, Esq., to "The Judiciary;" Hon. 
Benjamin Buckley, of Paterson, to "The State of New Jersey;" Col. 
J. N. Coyne to "The Army." There was no one to respond to "The 
Navy." Benjamin Van Riper, Esq. was most eloquent about "The 
Emancipation Proclamation;" "The Press" was handled pleasantly 
by Joseph A. Dear, then connected with the Times. One of the really 
big oratorical events of the evening was James Gopsill's response to 
"Jersey City — cosmopolitan in its character, Dutch in its origin, Yankee 
in its growth." Mr. Gopsill's speech seems to have pioneered along 
pretty fine lines, and such abstracts of his address as are preserved 
help us to a belief that the Jersey City of 5 I years ago must have had 
some very neighborly people in it. He was one of the great men of 



that generation, and his speeches on all such occasions ring with the 
finest type of patriotism. 

I wonder what happened in 1 869 ! There were two dinners on 
February 12, that year, one held in Cooper's Hall, with 150 present, 
and presided over by Mr. Weiss. The "Jersey City" toast asked the 
question "when shall we see the day when we shall hail the city and 
County of Hudson?" A cane, a pair of white kid gloves and a 
pocket handkerchief presented to Capt. Benjamin Richardson at Lincoln's 
inauguration were shown at the dinner. That function I am considering 
the orthodox one, because it shows Mr. Weiss was there. The other 
was smaller, 50 being present, and it was held at Zschau's. Capt. 
Dunning was reported as its president. The current reports repeat the 
facts about the eight originals, two years before, and add that they 
solemnly bound themselves to observe the Lincoln celebration every 
year for life, and to enjoin the observance upon those who came 
after them. Isn't it an exquisite recollection for us tonight, ourselves as 
the inheritors of that fine, patriotic compact away back there across the 
mists of half a century! 



Looking to The story of the Lincoln Association in all its eventful years 

the Future since that famous first night would hardly fit the title printed at the 
beginning of this essay; and so I leave with you this narrative of those 
strenuous days, and their action and reaction, their turmoil and com- 
motion, in which were shaped men of such great mold. We are now 
confrontmg a time of transcendent import in the history of the world; 
somehow, it seems to me, it ought to be a splendid spiritual stimulus 
to us whose manhood has been lived in this generation, to be better 
fitted for our part in the new reconstruction, by believing in the ideals 
of Abraham Lincoln with all our hearts. Men of our own blood, 
of our own firesides and friendships, have crossed the seas and faced 
the din and carnage of the most awful war of all time, some have given 
"the last full measure of devotion" — with no other impulse than the 
common right of peoples to live in liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 
So long as there is a spot on God's green earth that is not safe for 
democracy there will be reason for the perpetuation of this great impelling 
force which has grown out of "The 'Makings' of the Lincoln 
Association." 



W['^''''-W^^SB^iM LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




